A step or two behind the U.S., but headed in the same direction, EU regulators are nearly ready to send Boeing’s 737 Max back into passenger service.
Late last week, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said it is ready to draft an airworthiness directive for the plane, which has been grounded since April, 2019 after two fatal crashes blamed on flaws in the plane’s design and software.
While an official announcement is yet to com, Patrick Ky, EASA’s Executive Director has said the directive will be issued next month, with a four-week period for public comment. A similar process is already underway in the U.S.
Both the U.S. and EU put the plane with its revised software and some hardware tweaks through test flights in September. Once approval is given, it will take some time before passenger service begins; pilots will need training on the new systems, and the planes will need to be brought from storage and prepared for their return.
