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FAA gives Boeing 90 days to fix ‘quality control’ after 737 Max door blowout

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Published Feb. 29, 2024, 9:52 a.m. ET

The US Federal Aviation Administration has demanded that Boeing develop “a comprehensive action plan to address its systemic quality-control issues” within 90 days.

The FAA’s harsh crackdown on the aircraft manufacturer comes nearly two months after Boeing’s 737 Max 9 plane was involved in a midair door blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight last month although, luckily, no one was sitting next to the door that blew off.

The US Justice Department, meanwhile, is still investigating the incident, deciding whether it falls under the government’s 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement with the company, according to Bloomberg.

If prosecutors determine that the door plug blowout constitutes a breach of that contractual agreement, then Boeing could face criminal liability, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has given Boeing 90 days, until May 28, to develop " comprehensive action plan to address its systemic quality-control issues," per a statement the government agency released on Wednesday.
The US Federal Aviation Administration has given Boeing 90 days, until May 28, to develop ” comprehensive action plan to address its systemic quality-control issues,” per a statement the government agency released on Wednesday. AP

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker is requiring that “Boeing must commit to real and profound improvements” by May 28, adding that the FAA would “hold them accountable every step of the way, with mutually understood milestones and expectations.”

The FAA is expecting Boeing to “mature its Safety Management System (SMS) program” — which the company claimed when it implemented it in 2019 “ensures the safety, quality and compliance of our products” — and to integrate the renewed SMS program “with a Quality Management System, which will ensure the same level of rigor and oversight is applied to the company’s suppliers.”

“Boeing must take a fresh look at every aspect of their quality-control process and ensure that safety is the company’s guiding principle,” Whitaker added in the update shared Wednesday. 

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker demanded that "Boeing must take a fresh look at every aspect of their quality-control process and ensure that safety is the company’s guiding principle."
FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker demanded that “Boeing must take a fresh look at every aspect of their quality-control process and ensure that safety is the company’s guiding principle.” REUTERS

Responding to the FAA’s statement, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said: “We have a clear picture of what needs to be done. Transparency prevailed in all of these discussions,” a Boeing spokesperson shared with The Post.

“Transparency prevailed in all of these discussions. Boeing will develop the comprehensive action plan with measurable criteria that demonstrates the profound change that Administrator Whitaker and the FAA demand. Our Boeing leadership team is totally committed to meeting this challenge,” Calhoun added in comments earlier reported on by The Wall Street Journal.

Following the “terrifying” fuselage-blowout incident on Jan. 5, the FAA grounded Boeing’s Max 9 jets — most of which are operated by Alaska Airlines and United Airlines in the US — and scores of inspection processes revealed a string of mishaps along the production process.

An Alaska Airlines-operated Boeing 737 Max 9 plane experienced a door blowout at 16,000 feet in early January. Luckily, no passengers were seated next to the door that broke off the plane mid-flight.
An Alaska Airlines-operated Boeing 737 Max 9 plane experienced a door blowout at 16,000 feet in early January. Luckily, no passengers were seated next to the door that broke off the plane mid-flight. AP

Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems told Boeing earlier this month that there were incorrectly drilled holes on a number of fuselages, which will require additional work expected to cause near-term delays of the aircraft.

Photo evidence from the now-infamous Alaska Airlines flight last month has also revealed that key bolts were missing from the door plug, which had been removed to fix rivets that were damaged in the production process, according to the independent US National Transportation Safety Board report.

An FAA panel ripped Boeing’s “lack of awareness of safety-related metrics at all levels of the organization” this week.

The expert panel — which has been reviewing Boeing’s safety management processes since last year — also cited an “inadequate and confusing implementation of the components of a positive safety culture.”

The group said that the mishaps on the Alaska Airlines flight in question only “amplified the expert panel’s concerns that the safety-related messages or behaviors are not being implemented across the entire Boeing population,” the report said, noting that there had been “gaps in Boeing’s safety journey” that had become public in 2023.

a plane under construction in a production facility
Ed Clark — who led Boeing’s troubled department that also oversees the production of its embattled Max 9 model — left the company last week, capping off a 15-year tenure. REUTERS

Thus far, Boeing has shaken up the leadership team overseeing its 737 Max program.

Last week, the manufacturer announced that Ed Clark — who led Boeing’s troubled department that also oversees the production of its embattled Max 9 model — would be leaving immediately, capping off the executive’s 15-year stint at the company.

Clark had been promoted to take over the Max program in 2021, based at Boeing’s Renton, Wash.-based factory, when the company was accelerating production following two 737 Max 9 crashes — in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in March in 2019 — that killed a combined 346 people.

Similarly to the January incident, the two fatal crashes resulted in a temporary global grounding of 737 Max jets and sparked a firestorm of questions about Boeing’s safety procedures.