The leader of one of the nation's largest pilots unions says Boeing placed its customers' bottom line above public safety when it failed to disclose to pilots how the flight control system at the center of two fatal 737 Max crashes functioned.
Allied Pilots Association President Dan Carey is expected to pose tough questions to Congress about the Federal Aviation Administration's certification process, according to prepared remarks he plans to deliver during a House aviation subcommittee hearing Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, as pilots know, improvements in aviation are often written in the blood of the unfortunate victims of airplane accidents," Carey wrote in his remarks.
Carey, a 35-year career captain who still pilots a Boeing 777 on international routes, plans to call for increased accountability from Boeing and the FAA, including asking Congress to investigate whether the FAA is "sufficiently independent of the manufacturers so as to provide a legitimately rigorous audit of the manufacturers' design and engineering?"
The union president will also recommend involving pilots in the certification and flight testing process as the Boeing 737 Max prepares for re-entry into U.S. carriers' fleets. There still is no firm timetable for when the aircraft will be permitted to fly again.
Max aircraft have been grounded globally since mid-March.
"All of us _ the pilots, flight attendants, airline companies, manufacturers, the executive branch of our government, and Congress _ owe those victims the highest level of diligence to make sure these kinds of accidents never happen again," Carey said in a statement ahead of the hearing.
Carey, whose union represents 15,000 pilots who fly for American Airlines, has been vocal about the need for transparency, accountability and trust-building between all parties involved in re-certifying the aircraft.
His testimony comes about two weeks before his term at the union's helm ends. He'll be replaced July 1 by Capt. Eric Ferguson, a Dallas-Fort Worth-based pilot who won a runoff election.
In May, an audio recording reviewed by The Dallas Morning News detailed a tense meeting between pilots and Boeing in which representatives of the company pushed back on pilots' requests to act quickly regarding an automated software system _ known as MCAS _ and suspected in the October Lion Air crash that killed 189 people.
"We don't want to do a crappy job of fixing things, and we also don't want to fix the wrong things" a Boeing official told pilots during the meeting. Months later a second Boeing 737 Max crashed in Ethiopia, raising the death toll from Max crashes to 346.
"The huge error of omission is that Boeing failed to disclose the existence of MCAS to the pilot community," Carey said. "The final fatal mistake was, therefore, the absence of robust pilot training in the event that the MCAS failed."
And pilots aren't the only ones concerned about the aircraft's re-certification process. The independent union representing flight attendants who work for American Airlines also submitted comments for the hearing Wednesday.
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants is concerned about how its flight attendants will be able to foster trust in the flying public they serve given a recent poll by NPR showing most respondents won't fly on the 737 Max even if the FAA re-certifies it.
"As flight attendants, we will be the ones fielding the questions and concerns of passengers when the plane is reintroduced," union president Lori Bassani said in submitted testimony. "Our flight attendants must be included every step of the way as they must be 100% comfortable and confident in the aircraft's airworthiness to transport customers and crew."
The APFA represents more than 28,000 flight attendants serving American Airlines.
