AIRLINE INDUSTRY/CONGRESS/FAA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Boeing’s beleaguered 737 MAX 8 jetliner, despite pleas from lawmakers of both parties who said the U.S. should join a growing list of governments that have barred the plane amid questions about two deadly air crashes. The FAA’s action avoided the major disruptions that could occur if regulators were to sideline a plane that’s important to the operations of some domestic airlines and a moneymaker for one of the nation’s top manufacturers. But it left the agency increasingly isolated amid pressure from members of Congress, labor unions and dozens of countries and foreign-based airlines responding to Sunday’s disaster in Ethiopia and an apparently similar crash last fall in Indonesia…The statement came hours after President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, who assured him that the 737 MAX is safe. An administration official later said the White House has been in ‘constant contact’ with the FAA about the issue. Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash killed 157 people, including eight Americans. Though the cause of the crash has not been determined, it bears similarities to an October air disaster in Indonesia in which 189 people died, raising questions about whether a Boeing stall-prevention system on the MAX 8 sent the plane into a fatal dive just after takeoff.”
–Bob King, “Trump’s FAA increasingly isolated as other countries ban Boeing jet,” Politico, March 12, 2019 6:56 pm