I wonder if the FAA is even properly equipped to examine, test, and certify software like the MCAS law even in the best of times, much less under the current administration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_Designation_Autho...
The FAA relies on certification paperwork, which was falsified for the 737 MAX.
So the FAA was completely cut out of the certification process.
I still upvoted your comment even though I disagree with the sentiment because I see this a lot when risk management is considered by many. Unless risk management is your domain expertise, or you've been to lots and lots of different organizations to observe what works and what didn't, it is a very human perspective.
Risk management is not performed by saying, "Nothing bad has happened even less, therefore let's keep with the status quo or make it more lax to save money." Reactive risk management based upon the rear-view mirror is a great way to invite extinction-level tail risk into the organization's house.
We could play an exciting game of Cognitive Bias Bingo [1] with such a perspective, though.
As best as Wikipedia can tell me, Boeing has delivered 130 Max's which flew ~120,000 flight hours. Even if we completely disregard all MCAS failures that the pilots were able to mitigate, two 737 Max 8's were destroyed within the first two years of operation, representing ~1.5% of the aircraft actually in operation in two years. That is a pretty alarming statistic, and points to the Max 8 genuinely being an unsafe aircraft.
“The roots of this crisis can be found in a major change that the FAA instituted in its regulatory responsibility in 2005. Rather than naming and supervising its own ‘designated airworthiness representatives,’ the agency decided to allow Boeing and other manufacturers who qualified under the revised procedures to select their own employees to certify the safety of their aircraft. In justifying this change, the agency said at the time that it would save the aviation industry about $25 billion from 2006 to 2015. Therefore, the manufacturer is providing safety oversight of itself. This is a worrying move toward industry self-certification.” -- https://www.dcreport.org/2019/03/18/how-deregulation-made-fl...
Obama should be faulted for oversight perhaps, but the ball was rolling long before.
Trump _has_ made broad efforts to force _further_ FAA dereg. -- https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisagarcia/2019/03/18/did-tru...