Top regulator pledges to hold Boeing accountable with 'more boots on the ground' at factories

US Federal Aviation Administration 'will consider the full extent of our enforcement authority to ensure Boeing is held accountable for any non-compliance', top official said  

The hole blown out of an airborne Boeing Max 9 plane last month has led to global alarm over the US planemaker.

The US Federal Aviation Administration’s top official pledged to hold Boeing accountable for any quality lapses as the agency examines the US planemaker’s manufacturing processes following a near-disaster on an Alaska Airlines flight last month.

“The events of January 5 really created two issues for us, one is what’s wrong with this airplane, but two, what’s going on with the production at Boeing,” FAA administrator Mike Whitaker told lawmakers in Washington. 

“There have been issues in the past and they don’t seem to be getting resolved so we feel like we need to have a heightened level of oversight to really get after that.” 

He added the agency would have “more boots on the ground” to monitor Boeing’s factories, saying the FAA “will consider the full extent of our enforcement authority to ensure Boeing is held accountable for any non-compliance”.  

Mr Whitaker, who took the helm in October, testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The mid-air structural blowout on the Boeing 737 Max 9 has dominated his tenure to date, leading the agency to step up its scrutiny of Boeing and its suppliers, and to bar the planemaker from increasing deliveries until quality improves.

The agency expects to have enough data from an investigation launched after the accident to make initial recommendations as soon as late February, the FAA has said. 

Boeing has had a series of manufacturing glitches with the Max through 2023, which culminated in the near-catastrophic panel blowout on the Max 9 on January 5. 

This past weekend, Boeing found more mistakes with holes drilled into the fuselage of its 737 Max jets, threatening to slow deliveries further. Shares of the planemaker have declined 21% this year. 

The FAA plans to expand its oversight to include both audits and inspections, and was moving inspectors into manufacturing facilities, Mr Whitaker said. 

He anticipates additional FAA personnel will maintain a longer-term presence at Boeing’s 737 Max factories, although no final decisions have been made. 

Mr Whitaker said he planned to hold a discussion this week with senior leadership from major US airlines on how they “share information more transparently to improve our safety management system”. 

The agency is working on how it can improve data accessibility, since it will be “crucial to identifying and mitigating significant risks and emerging safety trends”, he said. 

• Bloomberg