The Latest: Man who lost daughter questions FAA inspections

By Associated Press 18 July 2019, 12:00AM

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on a U.S. House subcommittee hearing on aircraft safety and the Boeing 737 Max (all times local):

11:15 a.m.

A man whose daughter was killed when an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max crashed in March called on legislators to end the Federal Aviation Administration's use of aircraft manufacturer employees to conduct safety inspections.

Michael Stumo, whose daughter Samya died in the crash, told a subcommittee of the U.S. House Transportation Committee that the FAA should return to a system where the inspectors are paid by the FAA but report jointly to the agency and the company.

With that structure "the safety culture could put a stop to things if something looked wrong," he said.

Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., the highest-ranking Republican on the subcommittee, said the process to "unground" the Max will not resemble the process under which the plane was originally approved.

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11 a.m.

A man whose family was killed in the crash of a Boeing 737 Max jet in Ethiopia accused the company of wrongful conduct and told a U.S. House subcommittee that the process to approve aircraft must be strengthened.

Paul Njoroge (Nih-JOR-Gay) says Wednesday that Boeing was left to police itself and allowed to sell the Max without recertifying it as a new aircraft.

He says leadership of the Federal Aviation Administration should change so safety engineers are in charge and called on Congress to increase its budget.

Njoroge says pilots should be trained on simulators to handle the Max's flight control software that can point the plane's nose down to avoid an aerodynamic stall.

Boeing is proposing computer training as it tries to return the grounded to the air.

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This report has been corrected to show that Garret Graves, not Sam Graves, commented on the progress to "unground" the Max.

By Associated Press 18 July 2019, 12:00AM
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