The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is imposing fines totaling $3.1 million on Boeing due to various safety infractions. These include an incident involving an Alaska Airlines aircraft, where a plug panel detached from the fuselage during flight.
The proposed penalty is for safety violations that occurred from September 2023 through February 2024, the FAA said Friday.
This timeframe covers the January 2024 incident where a door plug, covering an emergency exit on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9, was blown off shortly after departure from Portland, Oregon.
None of the 171 passengers or six crew members on the flight were seriously injured. Pilots landed the plane safely back at the airport.
In June, the National Transportation Safety Board reported after a 17-month investigation, that there were deficiencies in Boeing’s manufacturing processes and safety enforcement. These issues, coupled with inadequate inspections and audits by the FAA, contributed to the door plug incident.
The FAA, on Friday, highlighted numerous breaches of quality systems at Boeing’s 737 manufacturing site in Renton, Washington, and at Spirit AeroSystems’ 737 facility in Wichita, Kansas.
Among the various violations, the FAA discovered that a Boeing employee exerted pressure on a member of Boeing’s ODA team, responsible for conducting inspections and certifications for the FAA, to approve a 737 Max aircraft. This was done to adhere to delivery timelines, despite the aircraft not meeting the necessary standards according to the ODA member.
Arlington, Virginia-based Boeing has 30 days to respond to the FAA.
Boeing, in a statement on Saturday, mentioned that they are currently reviewing the FAA’s proposed penalties. The company highlighted that they had implemented a safety and quality enhancement plan last year, under the FAA’s supervision, aimed at improving safety management and quality control in their aircraft manufacturing process.
“We regret the January 2024 door-plug accident and continue to work on strengthening our safety culture and improving first-time quality and accountability across our operations,” the company said.
The Max version of Boeing’s bestselling 737 airplane has been the source of persistent troubles for the company since two of the jets crashed, one in Indonesia in 2018 and another in Ethiopia in 2019, killing a combined 346 people.
The Justice Department reached a deal in May allowing Boeing to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading U.S. regulators about the Max before the two crashes.
Boeing was also in the news in June when a 787 flown by Air India crashed shortly after takeoff and killed at least 270 people. Investigators have not determined what caused that crash, but so far they have not found any flaws with the model, which has a strong safety record.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
