The Federal Aviation Administration is seeking $3.1 million in fines from Boeing over safety violations, including ones related to an Alaska Airlines jetliner losing a door plug panel on its fuselage in midflight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The proposed penalty is for safety violations that occurred from September 2023 through February 2024, the FAA said Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That period includes the January 2024 blowout<\/a> of a paneled-over exit door \u2014 called a door plug \u2014- on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 shortly after it took off from Portland, Oregon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n None of the 171 passengers or six crew members on the flight were seriously injured. Pilots landed the plane safely back at the airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In June, the National Transportation Safety Board said its 17-month long investigation<\/a> found that lapses in Boeing\u2019s manufacturing and safety oversight, combined with ineffective inspections and audits by the FAA, led to the door plug blowout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The FAA said Friday that it identified hundreds of quality system violations at Boeing’s 737 factory in Renton, Washington, and Boeing subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems’ 737 factory in Wichita, Kansas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among other violations, the regulator also found that a Boeing employee pressured a member of Boeing’s ODA unit, which is tasked with performing certain inspections and certifications on the FAA’s behalf, to sign off on a 737 Max airplane \u201cso that Boeing could meet its delivery schedule, even though the ODA member determined the aircraft did not comply with applicable standards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arlington, Virginia-based Boeing has 30 days to respond to the FAA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a statement Saturday, Boeing said it is reviewing the agency’s proposed civil penalty, noting that the company put in place a safety and quality plan last year, under FAA oversight, that aims to enhance safety management and quality assurance in its airplane production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Max version of Boeing\u2019s bestselling 737<\/a> airplane has been the source of persistent troubles<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Justice Department reached a deal in May allowing Boeing to avoid criminal prosecution<\/a> for allegedly misleading U.S. regulators about the Max before the two crashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Boeing was also in the news in June when a 787 flown<\/a> by Air India crashed shortly after takeoff<\/a> and killed at least 270 people<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n