FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, June 17, 2019
For copies of testimony and to arrange interviews, contact:
Ollie Jones, oliver.jones@berlinrosen.com, (646) 746-4325
Kwame Belle, kwame.belle@berlinrosen.com
At Wednesday’s House Hearing on Boeing 737 MAX,
Pilot Union President to Call for Accountability from Boeing and Reassessment of FAA Certification Process
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“We Owe It to the Flying Public to Make Sure these Kinds of Events Never Happen Again”
Washington, D.C. – Carrying pilot concerns to members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Aviation on Wednesday, Allied Pilots Association (APA) President Capt. Daniel Carey will discuss the union’s ongoing efforts to raise questions about the Boeing 737 MAX. During his testimony, Capt. Carey will call for more accountability from Boeing and the FAA, including involving pilots in the aircraft certification and flight testing process. In addition to his role as the APA President, Capt. Carey is a 35-year career captain with more than 28 years of experience on Boeing aircraft.
“All of us - the pilots, flight attendants, airline companies, manufacturers, the executive branch of our government, and Congress - owe those victims the highest level of diligence to make sure these kinds of accidents never happen again,” Capt. Carey outlines in prepared testimony for Wednesday’s hearing the “Status of the Boeing 737 MAX: Stakeholder Perspectives.”
“The huge error of omission is that Boeing failed to disclose the existence of MCAS to the pilot community,” Capt. Carey states. “The final fatal mistake was, therefore, the absence of robust pilot training in the event that the MCAS failed.”
Following the tragic Lion Air crash, the Allied Pilots Association expressed concerns with the effectiveness of the MAX’s MCAS system during an in-person meeting with Boeing on November 27, 2018. Unnerved by the responses received from Boeing during that meeting, on November 29, APA filed a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request seeking documents and communications between Boeing and the FAA relating to the 737 MAX and MCAS. To date, the FAA has acknowledged and sought to refine APA’s requests, but has yet to produce the sought-after documents and information.
“With regard to the public policy issues generated by the fatal MAX crashes, the foremost and most urgent, in my view, is assessment of the adequacy of the FAA aircraft certification process,” said Capt. Carey.
Capt. Carey plans to close his testimony with a set of pointed questions to the committee about how to improve the FAA aircraft certification process:
- First, is the FAA sufficiently independent of the manufacturers so as to provide a legitimately rigorous audit of the manufacturers' design and engineering?
- Second, should a “federated” system, which may lead to an unrecoverable event, ever be certified by the FAA?
- Third, should an FAA aircraft certification -such as a 737 designation from 1967- have a date for termination or sunset?
- Finally, is the FAA sufficiently equipped to ensure that pilot training protocols are vigorous and robust as aircraft are becoming more and more technologically sophisticated?
For interview requests or for more information, please contact apa@berlinrosen.com.
Background
About Allied Pilots Association President Daniel Carey
Captain Daniel F. Carey was hired by American Airlines in 1984. Based at New York's LaGuardia Airport, he pilots the Boeing 777 on international routes. He has also captained the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and MD-80, the Airbus A300, and the Boeing 727. Captain Carey represented the LGA domicile on the Allied Pilots Association Board of Directors from 1993 to 1998. His APA service also includes time with the Negotiating Committee, the Legislative Affairs Committee, the Strike Preparedness Committee, the Benefits Review and Appeals Board, and the No B-Scale Committee. While on leave in 2012 and 2013, Captain Carey piloted the Boeing 777 of Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. His flight experience also includes Civil Reserve Air Fleet missions for Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Captain Carey is a graduate of Cochise College in Douglas, Ariz.
About Allied Pilots Association
Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, near Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the Allied Pilots Association (APA) serves as the certified collective bargaining agent for the 15,000 professional pilots who fly for American Airlines.
APA was founded in 1963 and is the largest independent pilots’ union in the world. APA provides a broad range of representation services for its members and devotes more than 20 percent of its dues income to support aviation safety.