Certification work on the Boeing 737 MAX, grounded since March 2019 after two fatal accidents, is being finalized and a return to service in Europe "
by the end of the year
" is planned, the boss said on Friday. of the European Aviation Safety Agency.
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"
We are in the process of finalizing everything that needs to be finalized and I believe that, for the first time in a year and a half, I can say that we are seeing the end of the work on the MAX and we are starting to look at how to be able to restore in service with the MAX by the end of the year
”, explained Patrick Ky, head of EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency), during a remote press conference organized by the Association of professional journalists from aeronautics and space (AJPAE).
The 737 MAX has been banned from flight since March 13, 2019 after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft that killed 157 people, just months after the crash of a Lion Air MAX in Indonesia, which cost the life to 189 people.
The aircraft recently moved closer to a return to the sky with a series of certification flights at the end of June by the US aviation regulator, the FAA, then in early September by the EASA, but several stages still remain to be cross before the air authorities grant their authorization, in particular on the training of pilots.
According to Mr. Ky, for the authorization in terms of airworthiness, that is to say on the technical part of the modifications made to the aircraft, the EASA and the FAA should be "
roughly synchronized
".
On the other hand, "
on the operational part, it will take a little longer depending on the States
" because the resumption of flights will depend "
on each of the airlines, of each of the States
".
“
On the technical side, we are counting on during November,
” he continued.
The certification of the 737 MAX in China, the first country to have it nailed to the ground in March, will "
certainly
take
a little longer
", the regulator, according to Mr. Ky, not being "
yet to consider flight tests
”.
In addition, the training offered by Boeing to adapt crews to the new procedures followed by pilots were reviewed in September during a meeting at Gatwick airport near London with commercial pilots who tested the behavior of the aircraft. plane.
“
Things have gone well,
” Ky commented, adding that the reports will be released “
in two or three weeks
”.
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The FAA has come under fire for entrusting Boeing with the certification of certain key MAX systems, including the MCAS anti-stall software, implicated in the crashes.
In a report released in mid-September, the US Congressional Transportation Committee said the fatal crashes of the 737 MAX represented the "
horrible culmination
" of engineering flaws, mismanagement on the part of Boeing and a lack of supervision by the FAA.