Lawmakers seeking records on certification of grounded 737 Max

Two House Democrats are demanding that U.S. aviation regulators disclose a wide array of documents related to a review of repairs to the grounded Boeing Co. 737 Max.

The Federal Aviation Administration should provide the public with safety assessments, assumptions about pilot reactions to emergencies and test data on the jet, leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said in a letter Thursday.

“The public needs to see this data and that sort of transparency can only help to enhance aviation safety,” Representative Peter DeFazio of Oregon, the chairman of the committee, and Representative Rick Larsen of Washington, who leads the aviation subcommittee, wrote in the letter.

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said at a news conference Wednesday that the agency has already been as transparent as possible, but is prohibited from releasing some materials because they contain proprietary data. Relatives of crash victims, who are suing Boeing, have been demanding to see the records.

The FAA is in the final stages of reviewing proposed changes to the plane and updated pilot training that will allow it to return to service. It was grounded in March 2019 after the second fatal crash linked to a flight-control system.

A total of 346 people died in the two crashes, off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia.