From Fortune:

Boeing is asking federal regulators to exempt a new model of its 737 Max airliner from a safety standard designed to prevent part of the engine housing from overheating and breaking off during flight. Federal officials said last year that Boeing was working to fix the hazard on current Max planes. Without a fix ready, Boeing asked the Federal Aviation Administration last month for an exemption to safety standards related to engine inlets and the anti-ice system through May 2026. Pilots flying the Max 8 and Max 9 have been warned to limit use of an anti-icing system to five minutes when flying in dry conditions. Otherwise, the FAA says, inlets around the engines could get too hot, and parts of the housing could break away and strike the plane. That is what happened when an engine fan blade broke on an older 737 during a Southwest Airlines flight in 2018. A piece of loose engine housing struck and shattered a window, and a woman sitting next to the window was killed.
Overall, the 737 Max went into service in May 2017. All Max jets were grounded worldwide for nearly two years while the company made changes to an automated flight-control system that pushed the nose down based on faulty sensor readings. More recently, Max deliveries have been interrupted to fix manufacturing flaws, and last month the company told airlines to inspect the planes for a possible loose bolt in the rudder-control system. Subscribe to CHRO Daily, our newsletter focusing on helping HR executive navigate the changing needs of the workplace. Sign up for free.
Boeing said Friday that it is “developing a long-term solution” that would face FAA review. Critics are raising alarms about basing safety on pilots remembering when to limit use of the anti-ice system. Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for American Airlines pilots, told The Seattle Times, “We are not interested in seeing exemptions and accommodations that depend on human memory … there’s just got to be a better way.”Pilots of the Max 7 would follow the same instructions for the anti-ice systems as pilots of current Max planes. The FAA said last year that it had not received any reports of the overheating problem happening on Max flights, but that it issued the warning to pilots because of the severity of the risk, which was discovered on a test flight.



Read more: Boeing seeks FAA exemption from safety standard on troubled 737 Max planes, years after deadly crashes