so at 300+ deaths of primarily non-US citizens we just get to concerned, but then the near death of primarily US citizens it moved to action required?
the idea that the FAA allowed Boeing to self certify happened well before that happened and is a very large contributing factor for it occurring. based on time frames, the assumption would be that the FAA leadership has changed, but i'm not well versed in how often that changes. some research and rabbit holes looks in my future
Let me clarify a bit here, there was a flaw (the MCAS issue) the caused a crash and a lot of people died. Supposedly the issue was fixed and steps were taken to correct the culture problems that led to the MCAS issue in the first place. Politics are involved etc.
Now we see a second serious (the door plugs) issue and another undocumented "feature" (the cockpit door behavior). So not only were the culture issues not fixed, but we have more problems and the same class of problem in the same line of planes that we've already seen. That burns political capitol and public good will very fast, plus tends to piss off investigators...
There is an additional element of bad timing for seemingly unrelated issues. Since December 2023 several other issues have cropped up that, related or not and whether or not Boeing’s fault, make it a tough time to trust Boeing is competent when added all together.
Just a day or two ago a Boeing serving a flight from Atlanta to Bogota lost a nose wheel.
The public is understandably starting to have a negative association with Boeing. This is a big problem for the US in broader terms because they’re the only large scale passenger jet manufacturing company we have and represent an important strategic asset.
assumption that a lot of other countries look at the FAA as the lead on which to follow. several other countries operate with much less restrictions than those the FAA mandates, but if the FAA grounds a model of plane, everyone else will take notice. other countries are free to ground planes as they see fit and do not need to wait for the FAA. but i'm guessing there's real politik involved.
also why FAA? they are the ones that approved Boeing self certifying, so they have a lot of water to carry here.
The repetition of different problems in the same line of aircraft probably had something to do with it too ...