The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which was criticized for the aircraft certification process in place for the Boeing 737 MAX – later involved in two fatal crashes, says it has increased its use of independent groups of experts in certification projects.
The FAA said the expanded use of Technical Advisory Boards (TABs) is part of its reform of the certification process and that TABs “help the FAA have a consistent and thorough approach for all aircraft certification projects.”
During a TAB review, board members, who are technical specialists not otherwise involved in the projects that they are reviewing, “focus on a big-picture review of the project,” the FAA said in a Feb. 28 statement. That big-picture view can include “identifying new technologies, designs or design features that could be catastrophic if they failed, determining whether FAA project specialists reviewed all major issues, determining whether similar systems have caused proble…
