FAA probes Boeing’s possible role in 737 Max 9 cabin blowout

Nearly a week after a four-foot wall panel blew out of a Boeing plane cabin midair, exposing Alaska Airlines passengers to open air at 16,000 feet, the Federal Aviation Administration formally notified the Arlington County-based aerospace giant Wednesday that it will investigate the company’s potential role in the incident and whether it failed to ensure its products were in safe operating condition.

The FAA investigation — separate from the National Transportation Safety Board’s probe into the Alaska Airlines flight’s emergency landing Friday in Portland, Oregon — will focus on whether Boeing is at fault for the panel flying off the plane.

In a letter written Wednesday and made public Thursday, FAA Director for Integrated Certificate Management Division John Piccola informed Boeing Commercial Airplanes Vice President Carole Murray that the agency is conducting an investigation into the Alaska Airlines cabin panel blowout. “After the incident, the FAA was notified of additional discrepancies on other Boeing 737-9 airplanes,” he wrote. “Boeing may have failed to ensure its completed products conformed to its approved design and were in a condition for safe operation in accordance with quality system inspection and test procedures.”

Piccola adds that Boeing can respond within 10 business days of receipt of the letter. The letter does not go into additional detail about the problems spotted on other aircraft.

Last Friday, the Boeing Model 737 Max 9 jet had just taken off from Portland, Oregon, when the 63-pound panel was ripped away; it was used to plug up a space for an unused door near the back of the aircraft, and the panel was later found in a Portland teacher’s backyard, according to the NTSB. Although passengers were reportedly terrified, no one was injured, and the plane was able to make an emergency landing. The FAA, meanwhile, ordered a temporary grounding of dozens of Boeing 737 Max 9 jets so they could be examined for similar problems.

Dave Calhoun, Boeing’s CEO and president, said in a statement Thursday that the company “will cooperate fully and transparently with the FAA and the NTSB on their investigations.” Calhoun, when speaking during a town hall meeting at a Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, earlier this week, showed emotion when discussing the incident. He said, “We’re going to approach this, No. 1, acknowledging our mistake. We’re going to approach it with 100% and complete transparency every step of the way.” 

The latest incident is just one in a series of problems that have plagued Boeing over the past few years. In April 2023, Boeing had to pause delivery of some of its 737 Max jets after some of their parts were installed incorrectly, and in January 2023, delivery of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft was halted over documentation problems. In December 2023, Boeing delivered its first Dreamliner to a Chinese airline since November 2019, but China grounded all 737 Max jets back in March 2019 after two fatal crashes of the jet in about five months. Although other countries followed suit in banning the plane, the U.S. lifted its ban in 2020, as did other countries, except for China.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, Boeing’s stock had fallen 2.27% since start of trading to $222.66 a share. Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, which was responsible for installing the panel that blew off, saw its stock fall nearly 6% to $27.60 a share. Alaska Air Group, however, mostly recovered after a dip earlier in the trading day, finishing the day at $36.99 a share, only .19% down from the start of trading.

Boeing is one of the world’s largest defense contractors and employs more than 140,000 people globally. In 2022, the company moved its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington County, where about 400 Boeing employees are based.