The Federal Aviation Administration is seeking a $3.1 million fine from Boeing’s security violations, including fines related to Alaska Airlines’ jetliners, losing door plug panels on the mid-sized airplane.
The FAA said Friday that the proposed fine was targeting safety violations that occurred from September 2023 to February 2024.
That period included the January 2024 when Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 was organized on Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 shortly after departure in Portland, Oregon in 937.
Neither the 171 passengers or six crew members were seriously injured. The pilot landed the plane back to the airport safely.
In June, the National Transportation Safety Commission said its 17-month investigation found that Boeing’s manufacturing and safety oversight mistakes, coupled with FAA’s ineffective inspections and audits, led to a blowout in door plugs.
The FAA said Friday it identified hundreds of quality system violations at Boeing’s 737 plant in Renton, Washington and Boeing subcontractor Spirit Aerosystems’ 737 plant in Wichita, Kansas.
Among other violations, the regulator has found that a Boeing employee put pressure on Boeing’s ODA division, which is tasked with performing certain inspections and certifications on the FAA to sign on the 737 Max Max aircraft “even if Boeing can meet its delivery schedule, even if ODA members cannot meet ODA members, so the determination of ODA members is determined, it cannot constitute an application standard.”
Boeing, based in Arlington, Virginia, has 30 days to deal with the FAA.
Boeing said in a statement Saturday that it is reviewing the agency’s proposed civil penalties, noting that the company developed a safety and quality plan last year under FAA supervision, which aims to enhance safety management and quality assurance in its aircraft production.
“We regret the door insertion accident in January 2024 and continue to work to strengthen our safety culture and improve first-time quality and accountability throughout the operation,” the company said.
The highest version of Boeing’s best-selling 737 aircraft has been the source of the company’s ongoing trouble since the two jet crashes, with the other in Indonesia in 2018 and the other in Ethiopia in 2019, resulting in a combined 346 people.
The Justice Department reached a deal in May that would allow Boeing to avoid criminal prosecutions as it allegedly misled U.S. regulators’ maximum before two crashes.
Boeing also took the news in June when a 787 flight and killed at least 270 people shortly after Air India’s flight. Investigators have not determined what caused the crash, but so far, they have not found any flaws in the model, which has a strong safety record.
