Slow Progress Set To Push 737-7 Certification Into 2023, FAA Letter Suggests

Boeing’s slow progress on delivering acceptable safety assessments to the FAA will keep the 737-7 certification program going into 2023, putting the program in need of a congressional waiver for approval in its current configuration, an FAA letter to Boeing suggests. 

The Sept. 19 letter from FAA Certification Service Executive Director Lirio Liu to the Boeing senior vice president for commercial customer support and commercial derivative programs, Mike Fleming, says the manufacturer has not handed over six 737-7 program system safety assessments (SSAs). Other SSAs are in various stages of review.  

All SSAs needed to be in the FAA’s hands by “mid-September” for Boeing to meet its target of getting the 737-7 certified this year, Liu writes. “We expect many of these documents will take significant time to review due to their complexity and bearing on the overall safety of the aircraft,” Liu adds. 

In a Sept. 22 response from Boeing, the company says six outstanding assessments are close to being submitted, sources with knowledge of the letter’s contents tell Aviation Week. The 737-7 program includes 32 SSAs, and submissions began in March, the letter says. Three have been reviewed and accepted by the FAA. Boeing revised 13 others based on FAA input and resubmitted them. Ten more are undergoing revisions based on agency input, the sources say.

The Seattle Times first reported the FAA letter’s existence.

At issue is a congressionally mandated deadline that prohibits the FAA from issuing type certificates for commercial aircraft after Dec. 21. if the designs do not meet current flight-crew alerting system regulations. The 2020 law—prompted by extensive reviews of FAA certification and the 737 MAX in response to two fatal accidents in 2018 and 2019—includes a two-year window intended to give Boeing time to get the 737-7 and 737-10 approved with exemptions from flight-crew alerting requirements. The FAA granted the Boeing-requested exemptions to keep the 737 MAX as similar as possible to its 737 Next Generation predecessor.  

But other changes in response to the accidents, including new FAA certification protocols, mean major projects are taking longer than expected. One of the new requirements—also in the 2020 law—calls for submitting SSAs for every proposed change to a design submitted for an amended type certificate, and then FAA reviews of each SSA. 

The FAA also reviews human-factors implications in SSAs. Some of Boeing’s missing documents are human factors-related “templates” to support these new reviews, one source says.

SSA development and approval often were delegated to the applicant under FAA’s organization designation authorization program. Issues with 737-8 SSAs, including the FAA not knowing about changes to them, were cited as contributors to the two 737 MAX accidents.

Boeing is also seems to be having trouble adjusting to the new, more detailed documentation requirements under the shifting certification protocols.  

While the FAA must abide by the 2020 law, Liu’s letter suggests the agency will work to validate the 737-7 based on technical issues, not arbitrary deadlines. “The FAA will continue to maintain sufficient staffing to complete the necessary safety reviews in a timely manner, but such work must be completed deliberately and in such a way that an arbitrary calendar date does not become the driving factor,” Liu writes. 

Boeing has long known that 737-10 certification work would extend into 2023. Executives have maintained that requiring new flight crew-alerting systems would introduce a safety risk into the 737 MAX fleet, forcing pilots to learn two different systems to fly the same family of aircraft. Company President and CEO Dave Calhoun told Aviation Week in June the company was more likely to cancel the 737-10 than change the model’s alerting systems if the December deadline is not met. 

“Boeing is focused on meeting all regulatory requirements to certify the 737-7 and 737-10, and safety remains the driving factor in this effort,” the company says in a statement. “We will continue to prioritize being thorough and transparent in our documentation and interactions with the FAA and following established processes to ensure safety and compliance above all else.”

The company declined to comment on either the FAA’s letter or its response.

With the 737-7 now likely joining the 737-10, Congress will be forced to choose to change the 2020 law or force Boeing to make choices of its own. Some lawmakers are publicly against such a move. 

The Seattle Times reported Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, is working on a plan that would expand the window for approving both models as-is by a year. But given the 737-7’s significantly expanded timeline, it is not clear if 12 additional months would be enough, especially for the 737-10, which features several significant design changes to support the largest 737 MAX family member’s configuration.  

A year ago, Southwest Airlines was planning on taking delivery of more than 70 737-7s in 2022, starting in the first quarter. By mid-year, the airline conceded it would take none in 2022—the first clear sign that the 737-7, which first flew in 2018, was in jeopardy of missing the congressional deadline that many thought posed a threat to only the 737-10.