The head of the US Federal Aviation Administration has defended the safety body's practice of allowing airlines to carry out their own inspections as "a good system."
The FAA's practice is under scrutiny by the US Congress following two deadly crashes involving the Boeing 737 Max jet.
Our US Correspondent Harry Horton reports.
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The FAA is going through one of the toughest periods in its recent history.
It'll soon have to decide whether to allow the beleaguered Boeing 737 Max to take off again. Meanwhile lawmakers is scrutinising the process that approved the plane safe to fly in the first place.
"The committee's investigation is just getting started, and it will take some time to get answers, but one thing is clear right now: The F.A.A. has a credibility problem."
That's Congressman Rick Larsen, of the House Transportation Committee. Congress will hold several hearings on the regulators role after two fatal 737 Max crashes in the space of six months.
Here's Democrat PETER DEFAZIO
"We shouldn't have to have tragedies to change the rules if the rules need to be changed and now we have another tragedy and we've got to get to the bottom of this."
The FAA's acting chief DAN ELWELL faced two hours of skeptical questions.
He defended his agency's practice of delegating "certain tasks and certain decisions" to manufacturers.
He also suggested that actions by the flight crews in both the LionAir and Ethiopian Airlines accidents may have contributed to the crashes.
But he said he will only allow the 737 Max to fly again when the FAA determines it is "absolutely safe to do so"
"We will do a thorough and robust safety analysis. We will determine, based on the software fix they give us, will determine what level of training will be required of 77 Max pilots and then once we have established all of that and internally the FAA review says that the 737 Max is safe to fly, then the prohibition order will be lifted."
The FAA is expecting Boeing to submit a software fix for approval early next week. It could still be months before the 737 Max is allowed to fly again.
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