Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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291. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his Department and the DAA have liaised in relation to the safety and quality control procedures of Boeing aircraft following recent incidents with their 737 Max plane; if either have liaised with the US regulatory body (FAA) in relation to same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1678/24]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department and the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) are actively monitoring the ongoing work by Boeing, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, (EASA) regarding the Boeing 737 Max. EASA are the body with responsibility for the certification of new aircraft types in the European Union as part of its broader European aviation safety remit. EASA adopted the Emergency Airworthiness Directive issued by the FAA which grounded aircraft with the same configuration as the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 (MAX) that lost its door plug. EASA took this decision despite the fact that no airline in an EASA Member State currently operates an aircraft in the relevant configuration.

The IAA has confirmed there are no Boeing 737-9 aircraft on the Irish aircraft register.

The National Transport Safety Board (NTSB), the body in the United States of America responsible for the conduct of independent accident and serious incident investigations as per International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annex 13, has initiated a full investigation of the failure of a door plug assembly on a Boeing 737-9 operated by Alaska Airlines. The NTSB is providing regular updates and these are being monitored by IAA.