Patrick Ky, the executive director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), stated that despite early issues between the maker and the authority, the certification process for the Boeing 777X is still moving forward.
While the government and Boeing disagreed on a number of concerns, Ky hinted in an interview with Aviation Week that answers have since been found, enabling certification of the 777X to move forward.
Aviation Week cited persons with knowledge of the situation as saying that the key disagreement was how vulnerable the aircraft’s flight control system was to potential failures caused by things like lighting strikes, maintenance mistakes, and software flaws.
During the Dubai Airshow in November 2013, Boeing unveiled the 777X as the replacement for its best-selling wide-body model, the 777, and received 250 orders and pledges from airlines like Emirates, Qatar Airlines, Etihad Airways, and Lufthansa.
Two months prior, the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) indicated that Lufthansa had selected the aircraft “for its future long-haul fleet”, targeting an entry-into-service date “around the end of the decade”.
