Scrutiny of Boeing rises on new crash data – The Wall Street Journal

DUBLIN — As investigators work on the black box data from the Ethiopian Airlines crash, new information is emerging. For example, the airlines CEO confirmed on Monday that the stall-prevention system was activated during the crash. This is the system that came under scrutiny after the Lion Air crash last year, and the fact that it seems to be involved in the Ethiopian crash is definitely cause for concern. As these details emerge, politicians in the US are starting to pay serious attention to how Boeing is overseen. In particular, there is growing concern about the extent to which Boeing has, in some ways, been allowed to certify itself as safe. This all reminds me of the current debates around auditors in the wider business world. Free markets are great, but they rely on some important oversight systems and if those fail, so do markets. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) seems to have outsourced its responsibilities to the people it's supposed to be scrutinising. The same thing has been happening at audit firms, which have been taking companies' word for it on a lot of issues they should have been studying more closely. It's the age-old question: Who will guard the guardians? – Felicity Duncan

Fast-Tracked Aircraft Certification, Pushed by Boeing, Comes Under the Spotlight

By Ted Mann and Siobhan Hughes

(The Wall Street Journal) WASHINGTON – The safety-certification process that put the Boeing 737 MAX in the air is coming under congressional scrutiny in what is shaping up as a test of the aircraft maker's influence in Washington.

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