Story ID: 
Appropriations Deal Eases Boeing's Max Cert Burden
By: Charles Alcock
Caption: An amendment to the U.S. Congress's Appropriations Bill does away with a requirement for a crew alerting system upgrade for the Max 7 and Max 10 airliners.
Word Count: 224
The U.S. Congress has eased Boeing’s path to certifying its 737 Max 7 and Max 10 airliners by including an amendment in the 2023 Appropriations Bill that avoids the need for the manufacturer to implement a crew alerting system upgrade, which had been required under The Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act passed in 2020. The amendment includes requirements to retrofit more specific safety enhancements but gives Boeing up to three years after the Max 10 is certified to make these modifications.
Retrofits, which would be done at the manufacturer’s expense for airlines, would also apply to the Max 7 and the already-certified Max 8 and 9 models. They include an additional means to monitor the aircraft’s angle of attack and a switch that would allow pilots to deactivate the stick shaker in the event of an erroneous stall warning.
The most immediate outcome of the eleventh-hour agreement is to avoid the end-of-December deadline imposed by the 2020 Act for Boeing to complete type certification. Boeing, which declined to comment on the developments in Congress, has previously indicated it now aims to certify the Max 7 during the first quarter of 2023, followed by the Max 10 no sooner than the end of that year.
The Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act was passed in response to two fatal 737 Max accidents in 2018 and 2019.