Boeing 737 MAX could receive certification to fly again in Europe by the end of the year, the EU’s air safety chief said Friday.
Months after the crash of a Lion Air 737 MAX in Indonesia that killed 189 people, a second disaster involving an Ethiopian Airlines plane in which 157 died prompted flight bans around the world for the model.
Now for the first time in a year and a half, I can see we’re in sight of the end of the work on the MAX, European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) chief Patrick Ky told reporters in a video press conference.
“We’re starting to look at how we can get the MAX back in service by the end of the year”.
Early September certification flights by EASA followed June testing by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in June.
But the aircraft must still overcome several hurdles, including in pilot training, before authorities give their green light.
In a statement Boeing said: “We continue to follow the lead of global regulators on the process they have laid out for the safe return of the 737 MAX to commercial service.”
“We appreciate the rigorous scrutiny that the regulatory authorities are rightly applying at every step of their review and they will determine the schedule for return to service.”
Ky said that renewed certification from China, the first country to ground the aircraft, would certainly take a little longer as the Chinese regulator had yet to envisage resumption of flight tests.
But he added that a training review at London’s Gatwick airport to help pilots adapt to new procedures had gone well and that a report evaluating that review would be ready in two to three weeks.
