THE ALASKA AIRLINES INCIDENT: BOEING 737-9 the European Union and associated countries7. Specifically, through the issuance of certifications of "design organizations" and "production organizations", called Design Organization Approval and Production Organization Approval (DOA and POA, respectively), EASA ensures that the entities responsible for the design and manufacture of aeronautical products comply with the rigorous standards and regulations established by the Agency to ensure air safety. To this end, EASA continues to develop procedures that must be applied throughout the regulatory process, thereby maintaining the highest standard of safety at all times8. The FAA is in charge of issuing airworthiness certificates and supervising compliance with safety regulations by aircraft manufacturers and operators within the United States of America, developing, along the same lines as the European Agency, its own regulations, known as Federal Aviation Rules (FAR). Notwithstanding the above, it is important to note that there are significant differences between the certification procedures of each of them. For example, the FAA allows certain activities to be delegated to authorized private individuals who, in turn, may be employees of the manufacturer, which is not the case, at least to the same extent, at the European level. The American procedure described above raises questions about the appropriateness of allowing the manufacturer's in-house personnel to be responsible for certifying their own aircraft9, especially in view of recent 7 The structure of EASA regulations is arranged around Regulation (EC) No 216/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20th February 2008 on common rules in the field of civil aviation and establishing a European Aviation Safety Agency; Regulation (EC) No 748/2012 of 3rd August on certification of aircraft and products, and design and production organizations; Regulation (EC) No 1321/2014 of 26th November on the continuing airworthiness of aircraft, products, parts and appliances, and approvals to organizations and personnel involved in these tasks; and Commission Regulation (EU) No 2015/640 of 23rd April on additional airworthiness specifications for certain type of operations and amending Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 8 EASA Management Board Decision N° 01-2022 of 2nd May 2022 on the procedure to be applied by EASA for the issuing of opinions, certification specifications and other detailed specifications, acceptable means of compliance and guidance material (‘Rulemaking Procedure’), and repealing Management Board Decision No 18-2015, known as “EASA DMB 01-2022”. 9 As provided for in the Federal Aviation Act, the designees act as surrogates for the FAA to review aircraft design, production quality and airworthiness (FAA Order 8110.37E (DER Handbook) and FAA Order 8110.8D (Designee Management Handbook). DERs will follow the FAA certification procedure set forth in FAA Order 8110.4C "Type Certification”.
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