Boeing faces criminal, civil probes of Max quality control

Boeing Co.’s quality control on the beleaguered 737 Max is facing stepped-up scrutiny as federal prosecutors and regulators examine potential safety problems stemming from production faults, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Investigators are probing factory missteps that “raise red flags” about Boeing’s compliance with production regulations, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter. Boeing found debris such as tools and rags that were left behind by workers in about half of the Max jets the company inspected starting in November.

The probe into factory missteps could bring additional legal liability for the planemaker, and the Federal Aviation Administration is weighing whether to propose a multimillion-dollar fine against Boeing because of the debris issue, according to the Journal. Boeing is already under investigation for a flight-control system implicated in two deadly crashes after it activated erroneously.

“While conducting maintenance we discovered foreign object debris in undelivered 737 Max airplanes currently in storage,” Boeing said in a statement after the Journal’s report. “That finding led to a robust internal investigation and immediate corrective actions in our production system, which we have also implemented across all of our commercial airplane programs.”

The FAA said the Max, which has been grounded for more than a year, would only be allowed to fly again when regulators are satisfied that all safety issues have been address. The Justice Department declined to comment.

Boeing briefly erased gains on the report after advancing as much as 6.6% earlier in the session. The shares climbed less than 1% to $129.33 at 12:28 p.m. in New York.

Expanding Probe

The Max has been banned from the skies since March 2019 because of the accidents, which killed 346 people. Investigators began their criminal probe of Boeing and the FAA in the weeks after the first crash, when a 737 Max plunged into the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia in October 2018.

The probe has been expanded as damaging information came to light, including emails where a technical pilot bragged of using “Jedi mind tricks” to foil regulators.

In their examination of potential manufacturing flaws, prosecutors and regulators have both interviewed Ed Pierson, a former production supervisor at Boeing’s 737 plant in Renton, Washington, the Journal said. Pierson has alleged a pattern of assembly-line problems stretching back to 2018.In correspondence made public by a U.S. House of Representatives committee, Pierson had warned of safety lapses as Boeing completed work on dozens of 737s outside of its factory due to parts shortages.