Steve Dickson, administrator of the US agency that oversees aviation, will resign at the end of March for personal reasons, before the end of his five-year term.
He had arrived in August 2019 with the heavy task of restoring the image of the FAA, then accused of complacency with Boeing after two fatal accidents of 737 MAX aircraft.
It also had to face the consequences of the covid-19 pandemic on air traffic and more recently the chaotic deployment of 5G internet towers in the United States.
In a letter to agency employees Wednesday, Dickson explains that he wants to spend more time with his family after a career in aviation.
“The agency is in a better position than it was two years ago,” said the retired pilot.
“His tenure was marked by an unwavering commitment to the FAA’s security mission,” US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg commented on Dickson’s tenure.
Dickson arrived at a time when the FAA was under fire for its close ties to Boeing. He was accused of being complacent with the builder and of not having reacted more forcefully after the accident in October 2018 of the 737 MAX of the Indonesian company Lion Air, which caused 189 deaths.
Four months later, a plane of the same type, this time from Ethiopian Airlines, would also suffer an accident, causing 157 fatalities.
