The National Air Traffic Controllers Association’s (NATCA) engineers criticized a redesign of the grounded Boeing 737 MAX, raising doubt that anticipated fixes to the aircraft do not go far enough.
Since the 737 MAX’s development was based on earlier aircraft versions, current design and its portions do not meet the latest requirements of safety, the NATCA said on September 21, 2020.
The association represents FAA engineers responsible for reviewing and signing off on the MAX certification and is convinced that the grounded aircraft should have to abide by stricter standards on alerts in the cockpit.
Moreover, the association said that allegedly some technical staff disagrees on the extensive proposed revisions to the MAX. However, the NATCA did not disclose if individual engineers had objected to the FAA’s preliminary approval of the MAX’s redesign.
According to the association, erroneous warnings from a single aircraft sensor would still require substantial changes despite the FAA’s proposals.
The FAA has proposed a bunch of changes to the aircraft. Both investigations of two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes showed that the system was driving the plane’s nose down. The FAA said that the system would no longer activate repeatedly and all chances of its malfunction would be minimized.
The authority has also proposed to make improvements in the flight-computer system and its redundancy.
In comparison, earlier in September 2020, the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) expressed a different position to the FAA’s proposed changes. The NTSB said that the FAA’s suggested changes were generally consistent with the authority’s recommendations.