Boeing 737 Max Crashes: US air safety regulators defend record after double tragedies

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02:22

In the US, air safety officials are again defending their record after two deadly Boeing crashes. They told lawmakers they'll allow the 737 Max jet to resume flying only when it's safety is assured. But, those promises weren't good enough for members of congress as CGTN's Owen Fairclough reports.

The acting head of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration determined to restore faith in its safety checks.

DANIEL ELWELL, ACTING ADMINISTRATOR US FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION "We will not allow the 737 Max to fly in the US until it is absolutely safe to do so, and we will use every tool, every data gathering ability we have to ensure that's the case."

Daniel Elwell testifying before Congress after two Boeing 737 Max crashes in Indonesia last October and Ethiopia in March claimed 346 lives and led to the jet's grounding worldwide. But his reassurance wasn't enough for lawmakers who want to know why the FAA signed off on anti-stall software blamed for forcing the jets into uncontrollable nosedives.

PETER DEFAZIO, CHAIRMAN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE 'How can we have a single point of failure on a modern aircraft How can you have a critical safety system certified? Those are the questions we're gonna answer. '

Boeing is equally under fire-partly, because it knew about problems with the software more than a year before informing the FAA.

DANIEL ELWELL, ACTING ADMINISTRATOR US FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION "It languished and I am not happy with a 13-month gap between finding that anomaly and us finding out about it."

In a secretly-taped meeting with Boeing, American Airlines pilots confronted the airline after the Indonesia crash, demanding software fixes and more training for the 737 Max.

COLIN ALLRED US CONGRESSMAN "The pilots expressed a number of concerns to the Boeing executives and my question to you is was the FAA made aware by Boeing or by anyone else about that meeting about any of the pilots' concerns."

DANIEL ELWELL, ACTING ADMINISTRATOR US FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION "I don't discount what was reported in that meeting and I understand it."

Boeing did not testify at the hearing. It said in a statement that its longstanding collaboration with the FAA has created the safest transportation system in the world. OF, CGTN.