Boeing could get hit with a subpoena over its two deadly 737 Max 8 crashes

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Cal

Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., conducts a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing in the Capitol Visitor Center titled 'The Cost of Doing Nothing: Why Investing in Our Nation's Infrastructure Cannot Wait,' on Thursday, February 7, 2019.

• The U.S. House of Representatives Transportation Committee will investigate communications between Boeing and the F.A.A.
• Chair Peter DeFazio told The New York Times he would consider using subpoenas if necessary after the second crash of a 737 Max 8 plane on Sunday.
• For days, lawmakers urged federal regulators to follow other countries' lead to ground the plane, which finally happened on Wednesday.
• Everything we know about the two deadly crashes of Boeing planes in five months is here.

A powerful Democratic senator is willing to use the House Transportation Committee's subpoena power on Boeing following a second deadly crash of its 737 Max 8 plane this week.

Peter DeFazio, a representative from Oregon who chairs the chamber's transportation committee, told The New York Times on Wednesday that he plans to seek copies of "all relevant communications" between the company and the government's aviation regulator.

"This warrants vigorous investigation," he told the Times. "We're going to get anything in writing there is to get."

The committee plans to focus on the Federal Aviation Administration's certification of the 737 Max and why the agency did not require more training on the updated version of the plane.

US officials grounded the plane model on Wednesday, following similar bans by much of the developed word the day prior. President Trump's emergency order was preceded by calls from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to follow the example set by Europe, China, and many other countries.

Daniel Elwell, acting administrator of the FAA, said the government waited to ground the planes until it had sufficient information about any link to the Lion Air Crash, which involved the same plane model in a similar crash sequence when it plunged into the Java Sea in October.

"We got new information yesterday, and we acted on it," he told NBC's Good Morning America on Wednesday. "It is, in our minds now, a link that is close enough to ground the airplanes."

"When the FAA makes a decision like grounding airplanes, any safety decision of that magnitude, we do it based on data," he continued. "We're a data-driven organization…you have to establish at least more than a gut feeling that two crashes are related before you ground an entire fleet."

More on Boeing's 737 Max 8 and the Ethiopian Airlines disaster:

• Everything we know about Ethiopian Airlines' deadly crash of a Boeing 737 Max 8, the second disaster involving the plane in 5 months
• Norwegian Air reportedly tells Boeing to 'take this bill' after grounding its fleet of 18 Boeing 737 Max planes
• This map shows all the countries to ban the Boeing 737 Max 8, and where airlines have grounded their fleets, after Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157
• Elected officials are calling on the US government to ground the Boeing 737 Max 8 after the plane was involved in 2 deadly crashes
• Boeing's CEO reportedly asked President Trump not to ground the company's plane that has crashed twice in 5 months
• Pilots complained to authorities about issues with the Boeing 737 Max for months before the deadly Ethiopian Airlines crash
• The US government says it has no reason to ground the Boeing 737 MAX that has crashed twice since October
• These airlines will likely take the biggest hit after the Boeing 737 Max was involved in two deadly crashes
• The Boeing 737 Max has come under fire after 2 deadly crashes in 5 months - but the aircraft is likely to be successful in the long-run, an aviation expert explains
• These airlines will likely take the biggest hit after the Boeing 737 Max was involved in two deadly crashes
• 'You basically put a student pilot in there': The copilot of crashed Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 had just 200 hours of flight experience
• Boeing is going to update the control software on the 737 Max that may cause the plane to nosedive
• Boeing has $400 billion in orders on the books, 80% of them are for the 737
• 'I don't want Albert Einstein to be my pilot': Trump says airplanes are becoming 'too complex to fly' as the UK, China, and other nations ground the Boeing 737 Max 8
• These are the victims of the Boeing 737 Max 8 crash in Ethiopia
• The family of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 captain speaks out after crash that killed 157 people
• A Georgetown University law student who reportedly expressed a fear of flying is among the 157 dead in the Ethiopian Airlines crash
• The black box from the crashed Ethiopian Airlines flight has been found
• An Ethiopian Airlines passenger said he missed the crashed flight by 2 minutes: 'I'm grateful to be alive'
• People of 35 different nationalities were killed in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, including 8 Americans

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