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By David Shepardson and Eric M. Johnson
WASHINGTON/SEATTLE (Reuters) - A U.S. House investigative report into two fatal Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes on a Boeing 737 MAX faulted the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) approval of the plane and Boeing's design failures, saying the flights were "doomed."
Boeing Co's <BA.N> 737 MAX has been grounded worldwide for nearly a year following the second of two crashes, one in Indonesia in October 2018 and one in Ethiopia last March, that together killed 346 people.
The preliminary investigative findings from the U.S. House Transportation Committee, released on Friday, called the FAA's certification review of the 737 MAX "grossly insufficient" and said the agency had failed in its duty to identify key safety problems.
"The combination of these problems doomed the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines flights," the panel said in the 13-page report.
It also said Boeing's 737 MAX design "was marred by technical design failures, lack of transparency with both regulators and customers, and efforts to obfuscate information about the operation of the aircraft.
The report, which comes days ahead of the anniversary of the Ethiopian Airlines crash, adds that the findings should prompt legislative changes to address how U.S. regulators approve new aircraft for service.
The committee has been probing the crash for almost a year and received hundreds of thousands of documents and interviewed key Boeing and FAA employees in its investigation.
Boeing said it has cooperated extensively with the committee’s investigation and said it would review the report.
The FAA said in a statement it welcomed the report's observations and said lessons learned from the two fatal crashes "will be a springboard to an even greater level of safety."
"While the FAA’s certification processes are well-established and have consistently produced safe aircraft designs, we are a learning agency and welcome the scrutiny," the FAA said.
Ethiopia plans to release an interim report into the March 10 crash before the first anniversary, an official said last month.
A final report into the Lion Air crash released last October by Indonesia faulted Boeing's design of cockpit software on the 737 MAX but also cited errors by the airline's workers and crew.
RED FLAGS
The committee also concluded the FAA and Boeing missed "multiple red flags and clear data points” in recommending that the 737 MAX should continue to fly after the first crash.