In the Federal Aviation Administration’s investigation of the production of Boeing’s 737 Max jets, the audit revealed “dozens of problems” at the company’s facilities and one of its main suppliers.
The six-week audit was prompted by an incident in early January in which a door blew out of a 737 Max 9 jet during an Alaska Airlines flight shortly after departing Portland, Oregon. Since then, there have been a string of Boeing 737 Max 9 jet mishaps, heightening the public’s fears and frustrations with the plane-maker and leading customers and regulators alike to question the quality of the company’s planes.
At Boeing facilities as well as at its key supplier Spirit AeroSystems, FAA regulators uncovered several problems with the 737 Max 9 production, falling under the category of not following “approved manufacturing processes,” according to the New York Times.
Of the FAA’s 89 product audits, Boeing passed 56 and failed 33, and of the 13 product audits conducted on Spirit AeroSystems, the fuselage supplier for the Boeing 737 Max 9, only six received passing grades.
FAA regulators reportedly saw a Spirit mechanic use a hotel key card to verify a door seal, and in another observation, air safety regulators witnessed Spirit mechanics using liquid Dawn soap to lubricate a door seal, with both occurrences “not identified/documented/called-out in the production order.”
In response to using a hotel key card and dish soap in assembling the plane, a Spirit official said the company is “reviewing all identified nonconformities for corrective action.”
A Boeing spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that “based on the FAA audit, our quality stand-downs, and the recent expert panel report, we continue to implement immediate changes and develop a comprehensive action plan to strengthen safety and quality and build the confidence of our customers and their passengers. We are squarely focused on taking significant, demonstrated action with transparency at every turn.”
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The FAA’s findings follow last week’s announcement that the Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation into the 737 Max 9 door plug incident. The DOJ’s investigation will review whether Boeing abided by a $2.5 billion settlement that ended a federal investigation into two 737 Max jets that crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing a total of 346 passengers.
Days before the DOJ announced its investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board accused Boeing of not turning over records of the January door blowout incident, with the plane-maker claiming the documents did not exist. At the end of February, the FAA gave Boeing 90 days to improve quality. Since then, Boeing has reportedly been in talks to buy Spirit AeroSystems. Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems split in 2005.