US Lawmakers Propose Tighter Rules For New Airplanes

However, with Congress planning to adjourn in early October, and a similar proposal stalled in a Senate committee, the bills chances of passage this year appear slim.

The bill would not eliminate the FAAs program of letting aircraft-maker employees perform safety-related analysis for the agency. However, it would give the FAA approval over the selection of those employees and allow civil penalties if companies interfere with their work for the FAA.

The measure would specifically address issues at Boeing by creating a panel of industry, labor and government officials to review the company’s use of employees to perform safety analysis for the FAA, and let the FAAs top official suspend Boeing from the program based on the panels findings.

The bill would require companies to tell the FAA, airlines and pilots about automated systems that can change a planes path. Most pilots did not know about a system on the 737 Max that repeatedly pushed down the noses of planes that crashed in Indonesia and Ethiopia, killing 346 people.