Thank you Senator!! I watched the entire Senate Hearing and I have to say that your direct approach in the questioning of this hostile witness who was determined not to take responsibility for the failures of the FAA was spot on! You did several things that are right out of the book of how to conduct an audit. Which by the way is what you did to prepare for the hearing! 1) You had objectives which you developed a strategy to achieve 2) You identified the "root cause" of the problem with the 737 MAX 8 Jet (the fact that safety AN INHERENT GOVERNMENTAL FUNCTION had been outsourced or delegated to Boeing by FAA) 3) You shut the mouth of the FAA Administrator by your direct line of questioning requesting a "Yes or No" Answer each time. Something he refused to do because he had been versed on not admitting to any wrong doing! 4) Instead of asking for more information as many of your colleagues, You took pre-hearing corrective action by writing Boeing directly and demanding that they stop monetizing safety critical items on their jets. 5) You introduced legislation addressing the root cause that will force the FAA to stop outsourcing safety to Boeing. As a former employee of a Regulatory Agency and a former IG Auditor, I have to say you were spot on in every way! I`m amazed that you were able to do more in just 5 minutes than the entire panel in the rest of the 2 plus hours of testimony. The FAA Administrator was laughing and smiling until you finished with him and I can tell you from experience he was in full retreat! You are a credit to your State and to all travelers in America. Let me add that your line of questioning was something that everyone could understand and identify with any the FAA Administrator was not able to bamboozled us with technical jargon and his claim that we have done this hundreds of times! You really rendered the man speechless and from looking at the eyes of his staff behind them clearly defeated! THE ISSUE IS SAFETY IS AN INHERENT GOVERNMENTAL FUNCTION THAT CAN NEITHER BE DELEGATED OR OUTSOURCED TO PRIVATE INDUSTRY!!! GOOD JOB!!!
Why you thank him? He is not expert in aerospace. He gave good analogy of seatbelt with feature in boeing airplane but that is plain wrong. Even faa agrees with boeing on that, there is no safety feature being sold as option here! This is the what the senator did not understand. I can tell you that EVERYTHING in the cockpit is related to safety, YES and some of them are being sold as feature. To his example, there are a hunch of alerts for failed AOA sensor already. At earlier version boeing did plan the additional light indicator but abandoned tjat design, they did not incorporate and sold as feature. What the dumb senators always got wrong was to look at everything and came up with something to make people like you to believe that he is doing a great job. This is crap. Boeing did make design mistake, simply technical mistake (no companies plan profit for such thing, there is no profit, in fact huge loss for boeing right now). It wasnt an faa oversight, by the way congress if wanted to "fix" the process they need significant budget to expqnd faa. They have to choose one method
When the people in charge of safety (FAA) cant even give a 'yes' or 'no' without BS you know you have a serious problem... they are far to 'cosy' with Boeing
I was on board a plane from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 2014. That did a 180 degree turn pointing strait down to the water almost going to crash. Everybody screamed but me. The pilot gained control when we were with short distance of the ocean. Then announced everybody we are ok we will be landing safely. When I got off I thanked the pilot for his great job returning level of the aircraft. The FAA controller made an error. There was an Boeing 777 aircraft that was taking off and came within feet of contact with our aircraft. The controller was telling my pilot to descend to land SF while another to take off. I was grateful that my pilot saved our lives I saw the ocean within 1 mile of my window before we got back up. We were pushed down by the gust of the 777 wing. When I got off I tried to talk to airport authorities. The FAA were unreachable. I tried to call and couldn’t get anyone on the phone. I tried to talk to airport staff who said they didn’t have supervisors and that the FAA have a phone number. My flight was a jet. We almost did a 360 degree circle on our way nose going down. I still can’t believe I couldn’t do anything to report that occurrence. I was shook my life was before my eyes and it wasn’t the pilots fault it was the person telling him when to land from the FAA control tower. My entire flight almost died. Almost. If we didn’t have a good pilot my window was at one point facing the ocean and I was seeing the blue water I would calculate a good mile or 3 as I was pressed to the side of the planes side. We need senators like you to crack down on these federal organizations. Clearly someone in the control tower was goofing off or not properly trained. I have never and will never fly into San Francisco airport again. It’s a small airport and poorly controlled from my first experience.
@Sɑrɑ Fɑıəllɑ You REALLY need to report this to whatever media are near that airport and also, near your home. I've been on a "near miss" flight and it was front page center, the next day (big news for any media). If possible, you should try to contact fellow passengers to contribute their eyewitness reports.
Gary Itano Everyone was very shook. I didn’t know I could contact media I was only 23 years old. I tried to bring awareness and complain on ground about the control tower but they aren’t in the airport I was told. Our pilot was excellent and saved the day. I tried to contact FAA and their automated system hung up on me after 48 minutes on the phone waiting. I would still say something today. But what can I do it’s 4.5 yrs later. I’m so glad to see a senator putting them in their place right now.
I flew as a flight engineer crew chief in the United States Air force from 1954-1959 on a C-47 . This airplane had to be flown by a captain and all controls were cable so your input controlled all flight services manually ! Today's aircraft have taken the full control of the aircraft away from the flight crews today we have "Fly by wire' where electrical signals control the flight controls via electric signals and hydraulic boost. Look at all the accidents which have occurred because of this . The recent 737-maxs , the lost of rudder control on two 737's when the boost control jammed and sent the plane spiraling to the ground. All the computer malfunctions, I can go on and on but I believe there is too much electronics in the flight deck and built into the aircraft. What must be done is get back to basics , give the plane back to the pilot's get cable systems back into the aircraft. Till then we going to see more of these accidents. Question: During WWII our B=17's could fly with almost all of wings and stabilizers shot off and yet they survived. The aircraft were made out of aluminum not composite or plastic ! (My opinion) To the airlines and aircraft builders it's all money !
@Kathy Sharp Are you a pilot and have you ever been responsible for lives of people ? well I have this guy knows aircraft , been in the business since 1954 and am proud of all our older type Aircraft without all the computers ! check all the accidents in our modern day aircraft and most are design flaws due to over computerized aircraft and pilots not trained in how to fly without them. I flew for 5 years in the Airforce and even after we were shot at and had numerous holes in our aircraft we survived ! This 737 Max is a accident waiting to happen ! I bet the public will shy away from this band aid fix on this piece of junk ! I would Melt them all down and start over, this time make it Pilot friendly !
I fly often, domestically and internationally, but if I knew, even at the gate, that I was going to board a 737 max I'd walk, even if it meant forfeiting my ticket.
I totally agree with you. Safety features on aircraft are not an option but should be mandatory regardless of cost. CEO Dennis Mullenburg of Boeing stated: we have learnt a lot from these 2 tragic air crashes, so we want to ensure the public that this won't happen again??? Really! Such a shallow and ridiculous statement to make, Boeing were aware of the aerodynamic flaws of the 737 max8 before it entered service. Thank you.
Thats right Sen. Markey ! Ive watched several You tube vidoes about aircraft that have flown themselves into the ground without pilot error. This has to stop, Good Job in this respect Sir. Very good Job! Thank you Sir.
Well done Senator! Boeing's CEO clearly tried to avoid answering simple Yes/No question... greedy idiot!! FAA should have been investigated too...they could have been fed with $$$ by Boeing!!!
If boing establish new future into their flight licences, should boing sertified airman consider urgency for renewal, asap mandatory due to FAA regulations, yes or no
I wish this people are behind bars even before grilling or conducting a hearing so they can suffer too for the lives they took because of their love for money.
Pure lies from the FAA representative. Part of “safety critical components” is redundancy, which means having back ups in case something goes wrong. It has been determined that the MCAS failures in these two flights were caused by a single AOA sensor failure, that is not redundant. That is the point the Senator was trying to make to the FAA representative.
Am I the only one seeing this as a public bashing exercise those politicians practice in order to gain credibility? Sure Boeing and the FAA are to blame but iso yes and no questioning, details are needed to implement regulations refinements and changes.
We, the flying public, can help to hopefully eliminate the future catastrophic problems that will exist with the Boeing 737 MAX Death aircraft by boycotting the airlines that will be using this aircraft in the future. The MCAS has to be eliminated from this aircraft, which, so far, still remains in the updated & recently FAA-approved flight control system of this aircraft...100% pure stupidity.
With utmost respect to all who have suffered. When our political system allows/encourages out-of-control self regulation in business then the politicians and the people who voted them in should, I believe, take some responsibility. Unfortunately there are many but less spectacular instances of great suffering that happen around us every day. There must be a balance of regulation with business and government.
So, if BMW offers 12 airbags as an extra safety feature (6 are standard), then they should offer it for free? This old man is crazy! They put the minimal safety features, if you want extras....you should pay extra. Now, if those minimal safety features are classified as extra that is the problem.
