A sheet of plastic covers an area of the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines N704AL Boeing 737 MAX 9 outside a hangar at Portland International Airport on January 8, 2024 in Portland, Oregon.
Mathieu Louis Rolland | Getty Images
The FAA said Thursday that it had notified Boeing that it was investigating whether the company failed to ensure that certain “products conformed to their approved design and were in a safe operating condition in accordance with FAA regulations.”
The investigation comes less than a week after a panel of a two-month-old Boeing 737 Max 9 exploded during an Alaska Airlines flight at 16,000 feet.
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded the Boeing 737 Max 9 planes less than a day after the Alaska Airlines flight for inspections. Alaska and United Airlines said they found disassembled devices on other planes.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation into the accident, is focusing on why the door exploded during the flight. There were no serious injuries and there were no passengers sitting in the two seats next to the panel.
The Federal Aviation Administration, in a letter Thursday to Boeing's quality assurance officer, clarified the manufacturer's responsibility to ensure the aircraft conforms to the design and is in safe condition.
“The above circumstances indicate that Boeing may have failed to ensure that its completed products conformed to their approved design and were in safe operating condition in accordance with quality system inspection and testing procedures,” FBI Aviation Safety Officer John Pikula said. The FAA said in its letter to Boeing.
Boeing did not immediately comment.
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