> It was appropriate, I think, for the FAA not to ground the fleet after the first crash.

Safety first. They ought to have grounded the plane immediately after the first crash and TBH it's my belief that they would have done so if it had been a US plane with US passengers. The fact that it happened to brown people on the other side of the world made it easy to ignore.

Don't forget that the FAA had all the details of the plane showing that it had implemented the new MCAS system which in theory could have caused the crash.