FAA gives Boeing 90 days to develop a plan to address quality control issues

The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday it had asked Boeing to provide the agency with a “comprehensive action plan” to address quality control issues within 90 days, the regulator’s latest effort to make safety improvements after a panel from a Boeing 737 Max 9 had come loose. jet plane in flight in early January.

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker made the request Tuesday as he met with Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun and other company officials for what the agency described as an “all-day safety discussion.”

“Boeing must commit to real and deep improvements,” Whitaker said in a statement. “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.”

Boeing did not immediately comment Wednesday.

The meeting, which took place at FAA headquarters in Washington, came two weeks after Mr. Whitaker toured Boeing’s 737 factory in Renton, Washington. During his visit, Mr. Whitaker spoke with Boeing engineers and technicians to try to get a better sense of the plant’s safety culture. The FAA said after his visit that Mr. Whitaker planned to discuss what he saw during his visit when he met Boeing executives in Washington.

On Monday, the FAA released a report from a panel of experts that found Boeing’s safety culture remains flawed despite improvements made after the fatal 737 Max 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019. The report, which was commissioned by Congress had drafted, was in the works before January’s harrowing episode involving a Max 9 jet.

Boeing has come under renewed scrutiny after that episode, which occurred shortly after an Alaska Airlines flight took off from Portland, Oregon. No one was seriously injured when the panel, known as a door plug, came off the plane, but the FAA quickly grounded similar Max 9 jets. The regulator gave the green light to allow these aircraft to fly again later in January.

In a preliminary report released this month, the National Transportation Safety Board said the four bolts used to secure the panel that ultimately blew off the plane had been removed at Boeing’s Renton plant, and suggested the bolts may not have been reinstalled.

Since the episode, the FAA has taken an aggressive stance toward Boeing, preventing the company from expanding production of the 737 Max series until quality control issues are resolved. The agency also began monitoring the company’s production of the Max and opened an investigation into the aircraft manufacturer’s compliance with production requirements.

Last month, Boeing announced changes to its quality control processes, including increasing inspections at its own factory and at a key supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, which makes the body or fuselage of the 737 Max. Boeing also announced a series of leadership changes in its commercial aircraft division last week.