FAA Proposes $3.1 Billion Fine to Cover Multiple Events Between 2023 and 2024

The FAA is proposing $3.1 million in fines against Boeing for a series of safety violations between September 2023 and February 2024. The list is long, but primarily includes issues tied to the Alaska Airlines door plug blowout and pressure on company safety officials to sign off on aircraft that didn’t meet standards. The agency says it is using its maximum penalty authority under the law… which still feels more symbolic than harmful for a company of Boeing’s size.

The penalties stem from numerous quality control lapses at Boeing’s 737 factory in Renton, Washington, and at Spirit AeroSystems’ 737 plant in Wichita, Kansas. The FAA also said Boeing presented two aircraft for airworthiness certificates that weren’t actually airworthy, and cited an incident where a non-ODA employee pressured a designated ODA inspector to approve a 737 MAX to keep deliveries on schedule. The inspector had already determined the jet didn’t comply with standards.

The proposed fines cover the period when, on January 5, 2024, an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 lost a door plug panel mid-flight out of Portland. Nobody was seriously hurt, but the images of a hole in the fuselage of a jet at altitude quickly became the face of Boeing’s ongoing quality problems. The NTSB later concluded that Boeing’s manufacturing practices, combined with weak FAA oversight, were major contributors to the incident.

The 737 MAX has remained a sensitive topic for Boeing ever since the high-profile crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. Those disasters led to a worldwide grounding of the jet and a Justice Department case that Boeing settled earlier this year, barely skirting criminal prosecution. Attention has more recently shifted to the company’s 787 program after a June crash of an Air India 787 killed more than 270 people. Investigators haven’t found flaws with the aircraft so far, but the incident certainly didn’t help Boeing’s reputation.

In a statement, Boeing said it is reviewing the FAA’s penalty notice and pointed to a safety and quality plan introduced last year under FAA oversight. “We regret the January 2024 door-plug accident,” the company said, while also promising to improve “first-time quality and accountability.” Boeing now has 30 days to respond to the penalty letters.

FMI: www.faa.gov