US lawmakers decline to add Boeing 737 MAX exemption in defense bill

The US planemaker has been lobbying to convince lawmakers to waive the deadline that affects its MAX 7 and MAX 10 airplanes.

US lawmakers late on Tuesday declined to add an extension to an annual defense bill of a looming deadline that would impose a new safety standard for modern cockpit alerts for two new versions of Boeing's best selling 737 MAX aircraft.

Boeing 737 MAX: The Boeing 737 MAX aircraft is displayed at the Farnborough International Airshow, in Farnborough, Britain. (Reuters)

The US planemaker has been lobbying to convince lawmakers to waive the deadline that affects its MAX 7 and MAX 10 airplanes and was imposed by Congress in 2020 after two fatal 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia.