The Federal Aviation Administration stated on Wednesday that it had requested Boeing to offer the company with a “complete motion plan” to deal with quality-control points inside 90 days, the regulator’s newest push for security enhancements after a panel got here off a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet in flight in early January.
The F.A.A. administrator, Mike Whitaker, made the request on Tuesday when he met with Boeing’s chief govt, Dave Calhoun, and different firm officers for what the company described as an “all-day security dialogue.”
“Boeing should decide to actual and profound enhancements,” Mr. Whitaker stated in a press release. “Making foundational change would require a sustained effort from Boeing’s management, and we’re going to maintain them accountable each step of the way in which, with mutually understood milestones and expectations.”
Boeing didn’t instantly touch upon Wednesday.
The assembly, which befell on the F.A.A.’s headquarters in Washington, got here two weeks after Mr. Whitaker toured Boeing’s 737 plant in Renton, Wash. Throughout his go to, Mr. Whitaker spoke with Boeing engineers and mechanics to attempt to get a greater sense of the protection tradition on the manufacturing unit. The F.A.A. stated after his go to that Mr. Whitaker deliberate to debate what he noticed throughout his go to when he met with Boeing executives in Washington.
On Monday, the F.A.A. launched a report by a panel of specialists that discovered that Boeing’s security tradition remained flawed, regardless of enhancements made after deadly 737 Max 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019. The report, which was mandated by Congress, had been within the works earlier than the harrowing episode in January with a Max 9 jet.
Boeing has come underneath one other wave of scrutiny after that episode, which occurred shortly after an Alaska Airways flight took off from Portland, Ore. Nobody was severely injured when the panel, referred to as a door plug, got here off the airplane, however the F.A.A. rapidly grounded comparable Max 9 jets. The regulator gave the inexperienced mild for these planes to renew flying later in January.
In a preliminary report launched this month, the Nationwide Transportation Security Board stated that the 4 bolts used to safe the panel that finally blew off the airplane had been eliminated at Boeing’s manufacturing unit in Renton, and it steered that the bolts could not have been reinstalled.
For the reason that episode, the F.A.A. has taken an aggressive posture towards Boeing, barring the corporate from increasing manufacturing of the 737 Max collection till quality-control points are addressed. The company additionally started auditing the corporate’s manufacturing of the Max and opened an investigation into the airplane maker’s compliance with manufacturing necessities.
Final month, Boeing introduced adjustments to its quality-control processes, together with growing inspections at its personal manufacturing unit and at a key provider, Spirit AeroSystems, which makes the 737 Max’s physique, or fuselage. Boeing additionally introduced a collection of management adjustments in its business airplanes unit final week.
