The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has assigned technical experts to participate in a joint authority technical review team, an official said at a regular press conference Tuesday.
File photos: CGTN
The review team was initiated by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in response to the air crash in the Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max-8 passenger aircraft, according to CAAC’s official website. The post said the CAAC requires the airworthiness of the aircraft must be verified again, the required aircraft modification and pilot training be effectively implemented, and the safety problems found by an accident investigation must be correspondingly resolved to ensure flight safety before the 737 Max-8 can go back into operation. An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max-8 aircraft crashed on March 10.
China's airline regulator ordered all domestic airlines to suspend commercial flights of Boeing 737-8 passenger aircraft on March 11. In so doing, China was the first country to ground its entire 737 Max-8 fleet.
On March 14, CAAC met with a Boeing team to learn about the accident information and Boeing measures.
On March 15, Boeing submitted an airworthiness approval application to the CAAC through the FAA, indicating the design change plan of the aircraft flight control system.
On March 18, the CAAC accepted the application, setting up a special technical working group, to review the plane’s airworthiness. The process is in compliance with the requirements of the China-US Airworthiness Implementation Procedure (IPA).
CAAC has posed questions to Boeing and the FAA regarding the design and changes of the 737 Max-8 aircraft flight control system, and is awaiting responses from the two parties.
Xu Chaoqun, head of the airworthiness certification department at the CAAC, said that given two catastrophic accidents occurred related to the 737MAX aircrafts, the FAA, the aviation authority for aircraft airworthiness certification, sent an invitation letter to the CAAC on April 2, while setting up a technical verification team. The team's mission is to conduct a dedicated review of the airworthiness certification of the 737MAX aircraft flight control system to determine whether the aircraft's airworthiness certification work meets all applicable regulatory requirements and whether any improvements may be required in the future. The CAAC has sent one flight expert and one airworthiness certification expert to the team.
Earlier this month, the Ethiopia's Transport Ministry announced the preliminary investigation report of the Ethiopian aviation air crash.
Answering public concern about when 737 Max-8 aircraft might resume operation, Xu said that three principles will be followed: the airworthiness compliance of the aircraft design, the implementation of relevant security measures, and the conclusion of the accident investigation.
Xu stressed that it is necessary to fully evaluate the design and improvement of the aircraft and the corresponding training requirements, while making sure the solutions are targeted and effective to all known problems identified in the accident investigation.
Cover image: Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are parked on the tarmac after being grounded, at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California on March 28, 2019. (File photo: AFP)