I work in aerospace regulation and the latest media coverage has been quite upsetting for me. There is a huge difference between delegation (how the aerospace regulator gives approval power to people in companies) and self-regulation, but I’m not clever enough to summarise them in this format. So instead I’d like to share two facts that can summarize the outcome instead.
An airliner is a chunk of metal full of people 30,000 ft in sky propelled to near the speed of sound by burning kerosene in a tube. With all of that is safer than driving in your car or going for a swim. That’s aerospace regulation at work, and it has always included delegation. It’s almost the safest industry there is even when you include Boeing’s criminal fraud and attempts to abuse the system.
Boeing had to ground their fleet for years and now is being charged with criminal fraud for deceiving the FAA (the aerospace regulatory body in the USA). Self regulated industries rarely face consequences.
I’m not saying it’s perfect, and I wish I could explain the process better but I think it’s very effective and has a proven track record across the world. Almost all modern countries use the same regulatory framework because it delivers incredible safety at a reasonable (by aerospace standards) cost to the government.
I hope more industries transition to a similar framework. If we had an FAA for finance and environmental protection, I think we could end scam shell companies and illegal pollution in a decade. But it would probably be “big government socialism” so there isn’t much hope.
I work in aerospace regulation and the latest media coverage has been quite upsetting for me. There is a huge difference between delegation (how the aerospace regulator gives approval power to people in companies) and self-regulation, but I’m not clever enough to summarise them in this format. So instead I’d like to share two facts that can summarize the outcome instead.
An airliner is a chunk of metal full of people 30,000 ft in sky propelled to near the speed of sound by burning kerosene in a tube. With all of that is safer than driving in your car or going for a swim. That’s aerospace regulation at work, and it has always included delegation. It’s almost the safest industry there is even when you include Boeing’s criminal fraud and attempts to abuse the system.
Boeing had to ground their fleet for years and now is being charged with criminal fraud for deceiving the FAA (the aerospace regulatory body in the USA). Self regulated industries rarely face consequences.
I’m not saying it’s perfect, and I wish I could explain the process better but I think it’s very effective and has a proven track record across the world. Almost all modern countries use the same regulatory framework because it delivers incredible safety at a reasonable (by aerospace standards) cost to the government.
I hope more industries transition to a similar framework. If we had an FAA for finance and environmental protection, I think we could end scam shell companies and illegal pollution in a decade. But it would probably be “big government socialism” so there isn’t much hope.