Boeing is facing a Justice Department review over the Max 9 incident

The Justice Department is investigating whether an early January incident in which a part of a Boeing plane exploded mid-flight violated a 2021 agreement to settle a criminal charge against the company, according to a person familiar with the matter. is with the research.

Boeing agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion to settle the lawsuit, which stemmed from two fatal crashes of its 737 Max 8 planes. The deal, reached in the final weeks of the Trump administration, was criticized at the time for being too lenient on the company.

Under the terms, Boeing agreed to compensate the families of the crash victims, as well as the airlines affected by the grounding of the planes. The Justice Department agreed to drop a criminal charge based on the actions of two employees who withheld information from the FAA

Last month, a panel in the fuselage of a larger Max 9 blew out shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, at an altitude of 16,000 feet, exposing passengers to deafening winds. There were no serious injuries, but the incident could have been catastrophic had it occurred minutes later at a higher altitude. The panel is known as a ‘door plug’, which is used to close a gap left by an unnecessary exit door.

The Justice Department investigation was reported previously by Bloomberg.

The January episode reignited the intense scrutiny and scrutiny Boeing faced following the crashes in Indonesia in late 2018 and Ethiopia in early 2019, which killed a total of 346 people. The Max 8 and Max 9 were not allowed to fly worldwide for several days after the second crash. Since the jets began flying again in late 2020, they have flown several million flights worldwide.

The weight of the crisis seemed to be lifting even before the January incident. A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board suggested that the plane in that episode may have left Boeing’s factory without the need for bolts to secure the panel. The Federal Aviation Administration immediately grounded nearly 200 Max 9 jets in the United States pending inspections. Flights by plane have now resumed.

The FAA also increased inspections of the Washington state plant where Boeing makes the Max. On Wednesday, the agency gave the company 90 days to create a plan to improve quality control.

“Boeing must commit to real and deep improvements,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in a statement announcing the deadline. “Making fundamental changes will require a sustained effort from Boeing’s leadership, and we will hold them accountable every step of the way, with mutually understood milestones and expectations.”

Earlier this week, a group of FAA experts released a long-awaited report in the wake of the Max crashes, showing that Boeing’s safety culture was still lacking despite improvements in recent years.