Originally Posted by
rwanttaja
IIRC, the aircraft manufacturer establishes the qualifications of the personnel and inspection procedures to be used on assembly of the airplane...A&Ps aren't necessary. Part 43 isn't applicable until the plane has its airworthiness certificate.
The inspectors at Boeing don't have to have A&Ps. Certainly helps, for some jobs, of course. The inspection issues associated with the Max issues appears to be Boeing's deliberate circumvention of traditional inspection processes. "Enhancing Shareholder Value" became paramount, and, of course, inspections and quality control processes hurt the bottom line (in the short term, at least).
For instance the Seattle Times had an interview with a Boeing engineer who was an FAA Authorized Representative (basically a DER/DAR). Boeing wanted to short-cut some testing, the AR refused to authorize it, so Boeing reassigned the AR to a different program and brought in someone more amenable.
Ron "Don't get me started" Wanttaja