Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Mike Whitaker is expected to face a barrage of questions on Capitol Hill on Tuesday (Feb. 6) about the agency's oversight of Boeing since the incident where a door panel blew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 over Oregon last month.
Whitaker earlier said that the FAA would use more people to monitor aircraft manufacturing and hold Boeing accountable for any violations of safety regulations.
No Boeing representatives were scheduled to testify, the Associated Press reported.
Separately, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators were expected to release a preliminary report on the Jan. 5 incident as early as Tuesday.
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FAA, Boeing in Hot Water for String of Accidents
Both Boeing and the FAA have been under renewed scrutiny since last month's incident on an Alaska Airlines Max 9, with criticism going back to the deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019 involving Max 8 jets in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
The FAA provided excerpts of Whitaker's written testimony ahead of Tuesday's hearing, where he vowed to "take appropriate and necessary action" to keep flying safe.
Without giving specifics, Whitaker said that the FAA would increase staffing to monitor aircraft manufacturing and that they would "consider the full extent of [its] enforcement authority to ensure Boeing is held accountable for any non-compliance" with regulations.
On the other hand, Boeing revealed over the weekend that the improperly drilled holes in the window frames would require them to rework about 50 planes before they could be delivered to airline customers.
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