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FAA Chief Says 8-Hour Meeting on 737 MAX Was "Exceedingly Positive" - Report

The acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Thursday that an eight-hour meeting with international air regulators to discuss the grounded Boeing 737 MAX was "exceedingly positive" and "constructive," Reuters reported.
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Acting Administrator of the FAA, Daniel Elwell reaffirmed that the FAA will not approve the plane for flight until they have completed a safety analysis, with no set timetable and no decision yet on pilot training on the system that played a role in two deadly crashes, the Reuters report says. 

Earlier in the day, Reuters reported citing people familiar with the matter, that FAA representatives told members of the United Nations' aviation agency they expect approval of Boeing Co's 737 MAX jets to fly in the United States as early as late June.

On Thursday FAA and Boeing representatives briefed members of the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) governing council in Montreal on efforts to return the plane to service, Reuters says.

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On 22 May, the FAA announced that it would share the safety analysis, that will inform decision making on the return to service of 737 Max jets, with foreign governments. Daniel Elwell said at the time that the agency was still awaiting Boeing's formal software upgrade and emphasized the FAA has not decided on the revised training requirements, Reuters reported.

Last week, Boeing said in a press release that it had completed the updated Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) software updates for its 737 MAX aircraft following the crashes of two of them killing 346 people.

READ MORE: Boeing Refused to Fix 737 Max Issues After Lion Air Crash — Reports

Two Boeing 737 MAX planes have crashed over the past several months: one in Indonesia in October 2018 and another in Ethiopia in March. In the wake of the latest crash, aviation authorities and carriers around the world have either grounded all 737 MAX series aircraft or closed their airspace to them.

According to investigators, the pilots on the Ethiopian Airlines jet needed more than four minutes to realise that incorrect data from sensors had urged the MCAS to push the plane's nose down in a situation that did not warrant such action.

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