US FAA head set to explain Boeing 737 MAX progress

NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters): The chief of the US Federal Aviation Administration is set to detail on Monday progress on the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to international air regulators who are divided about returning the grounded jet to flight after two fatal crashes.

The closed-door briefing, on the eve of a United Nations aviation assembly in Montreal, will put representatives from about 50 nations in the same room, to swap concerns about Boeing Co's proposed software fixes and new pilot training.

New FAA administrator Steve Dickson downplayed the chances of a consensus breakthrough, telling Reuters last week that the meeting was more "to provide regulators with the latest information." The representatives are drawn from countries with airlines that fly that MAX and those that will have flights of the aircraft landing, he said.

Boeing's best-selling jet was grounded globally in March, days after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight that followed a similar Lion Air disaster in Indonesia in October. A total of 346 people died in the two crashes.

The US manufacturer has spent months working to update critical flight control software at the centre of both crashes, in hopes of winning FAA approval for the planes to fly again in the United States between October and December.

Airlines have urged regulators to coordinate on the software changes in a bid to avoid damaging splits over safety, but some countries have already vowed to run their own independent validation studies before restoring flights. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is doing its own examination of the 737 MAX design, said recently.