WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of the Federal Aviation Administration said on Thursday the agency was “too uninvolved” in overseeing Boeing (NYSE:) before an in-flight emergency occurred on Alaska Airlines’ new 737 MAX 9 plane on Jan. 5.
“The FAA should have had a much better understanding of what was going on at Boeing before January 5,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing.
He said the agency is continually increasing its use of in-person inspectors and will visit a Boeing plant in South Carolina on Friday. Before this, the FAA’s approach “was too detached, too focused on document review and not enough focused on audits,” Whitaker added.