FAA to take over Max delivery certification for stored aircraft

Once the 737 Max is returned to service, the FAA will issue all airworthiness and delivery certificates. This is normally delegated to Boeing, because it comes at the end of the certification process that the FAA oversees for each new aircraft. The FAA says that the number of aircraft currently in storage, awaiting delivery exceeds anything Boeing has ever dealt with before. It's expected that between 350 and 400 new aircraft will be awaiting delivery by the time the grounding is lifted. The delivery plan calls for aircraft stored at Moses Lake to be returned to flight status, then ferried to a delivery center where they'll be handed over to customers.

The decision by the FAA doesn't affect new aircraft coming off the production line, and straight to the customers. Once they are confident that Boeing has a stable and fully functional verification process in place, it will turn the process back over to Boeing.

WASHINGTON—The unique series of steps required to approve hundreds of stored aircraft for delivery to eager airlines has convinced the FAA that it needs to take over issuing airworthiness and export certificates for Boeing 737 MAXs once the agency has cleared the aircraft to return—a move that aligns with its stated pause on delegating any 737 re-approval work.

“The large number of new 737 MAX airplanes currently in storage presents a number of challenges for airworthiness certification, production and delivery, which significantly exceeds any that the Boeing system has previously experienced,” the agency wrote Boeing in a Nov. 26 letter. “These circumstances were not accounted for as part of any prior FAA evaluation or approval of the company’s quality system, or related delegation to the Boeing Organization Designation Authorization (ODA).”

The FAA said the move affects “all” undelivered MAXs. It will retain the authority “until it is confident that” Boeing has “fully functional quality control and verification processes in place” and the delivery process is “stable,” the agency explained.

aviationweek.com...

That is certainly an interesting step for the FAA to take. Are the days (finally) gone where Boeing can grease the right pockets and have no real outside checks on their processes? It just seems like Boeing has been letting quality slip over the last 5 or so years in multiple departments, while using their leverage in size (and subsidies) to ensure they can keep margins down.