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Boeing faces $3.1M fine for door plug blowout, hundreds of safety violations [arstechnica.com]:

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The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday proposed fines of $3.1 million against Boeing for various safety violations related to the January 2024 door plug blowout [arstechnica.com] and what the FAA called "interference with safety officials' independence."

An FAA statement [faa.gov] said the proposed fine covers "safety violations that occurred from September 2023 through February 2024," and is the "maximum statutory civil penalty authority consistent with law." Boeing, which reported [q4cdn.com] $22.7 billion in revenue and a net loss of $612 million last quarter, has 30 days to file a response with the agency.

"The FAA identified hundreds of quality system violations at Boeing's 737 factory in Renton, Washington, and Boeing subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems' 737 factory in Wichita, Kansas. Additionally, Boeing presented two unairworthy aircraft to the FAA for airworthiness certificates and failed to follow its quality system," the FAA said.

The FAA said that a Boeing safety official faced pressure to sign off on an aircraft that did not meet standards. The employee is part of the Boeing ODA [Organization Designation Authorization] unit that performs functions the FAA delegated to the company [faa.gov].

The FAA said it "found that a non-ODA Boeing employee pressured a Boeing ODA unit member to sign off on a Boeing 737-MAX airplane so Boeing could meet its delivery schedule, even though the ODA member determined the aircraft did not comply with applicable standards." Boeing's ODA process has faced criticism for years. A 2021 Inspector General report [dot.gov] found that "the Boeing ODA process and structure do not ensure ODA personnel are adequately independent."

Boeing “encouraging employees to speak up”

Boeing provided Ars with a statement on the FAA-proposed fine. "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," Boeing said. "Last year, under the oversight of the FAA, we instituted a Safety & Quality Plan with key performance indicators to enhance safety management and quality assurance in airplane production. Our team continues to implement these improvements, such as investing in workforce training, strengthening production system compliance and encouraging employees to speak up."

The National Transportation Safety Board recently issued findings from its investigation into the door plug incident. The NTSB said in June [ntsb.gov] that "the probable cause of this accident was the in-flight separation of the left MED [mid exit door] plug due to Boeing's failure to provide adequate training, guidance, and oversight necessary to ensure that manufacturing personnel could consistently and correctly comply with its parts removal process." The NTSB also said the FAA's compliance and enforcement systems "were inadequate to identify repetitive and systemic discrepancies and nonconformance issues" at Boeing.

The NTSB last year said that four bolts were missing from the Boeing 737 Max 9 when it left the factory. The plane used by Alaska Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing when the door plug blew off the aircraft in mid-flight.

Boeing avoids prosecution in fraud case

Separately, Boeing in July 2024 agreed to plead guilty [arstechnica.com] to a criminal charge of defrauding the FAA and pay a $243.6 million fine for violating a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement with the government. However, the Boeing plea deal was rejected by a federal judge [arstechnica.com] in December 2024.

The 2021 deferred prosecution agreement was spurred by 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed a combined 346 people. In May 2024, the Justice Department said [arstechnica.com] it determined that Boeing violated the deferred prosecution agreement "by failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the US fraud laws throughout its operations."

With the Trump administration reconsidering Biden-era decisions, Boeing reportedly asked the government [arstechnica.com] for more lenient treatment. In May, the DOJ announced a deal with Boeing [justice.gov] in which the company would avoid prosecution. The non-prosecution agreement [justice.gov] says Boeing must pay the $243.6 million fine and invest at least $455 million in its compliance and safety programs, the same terms agreed to during the Biden administration.

Although Boeing "had inadequate anti-fraud controls and an inadequate antifraud compliance program," it took steps "to enhance its compliance program through structural and leadership changes, including but not limited to steps to enhance the independence, capability, and effectiveness of its compliance program," the agreement said.

The government moved to dismiss [courtlistener.com] the case based on the agreement. The motion is still pending, and families of the crash victims urged the court [courtlistener.com] to reject it.

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