BA Boeing Co

By Andy Pasztor 

Boeing Co. was hit with a proposed $3.9 million penalty by U.S. air-safety officials who said the company installed defective parts inside the wings of around 130 737 NG aircraft and then knowingly vouched they met all federal safety requirements.

As part of Friday's action by the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency indicated that the parts -- designed to guide movable panels called slats on the front of wings -- were used despite being identified as potentially substandard by a Boeing subcontractor in the fall of 2018. Over the next eight months, according to the FAA, the Chicago plane maker certified the affected jets as meeting all airworthiness requirements.

A Boeing spokesman said the company is working closely with airlines that operate the affected planes to address the issue, adding: "We are committed to continuing to strengthen our processes to ensure that quality issues in our production system are promptly identified, elevated, and resolved."

Boeing has 30 days to respond to the FAA.

The proposed penalty doesn't apply to any 737 MAX models, the latest version of Boeing's best-selling workhorse jets that has been grounded for months due to issues with an automated flight-control system implicated in two deadly crashes. However, dozens of 737 MAX models also contain tracks from some of the suspect batches of parts.

Boeing said it will ensure that all inspections and necessary part replacements are performed on MAX aircraft before they return to service.

The FAA's Friday letter to Boeing comes days after the agency, citing questions about Boeing's overall quality-control efforts regarding MAX production, said it would individually inspect each MAX jet before it can be delivered to domestic or foreign airlines. Historically the FAA has authorized Boeing to complete such final signoffs and certifications on its own, typically with minimal agency oversight.

The parts at issue in the letter guide the movement of slats that increase the wings' lift during takeoffs and landings. Their failure during flight could result in passenger injuries or make it difficult to control the aircraft, according to the FAA.

In the Friday letter alleging civil violations, the agency said Boeing failed to maintain its quality system by using parts that had been inadvertently weakened during manufacturing and should have been rejected from the assembly line. Subsequently, according to the letter, Boeing affirmed to the FAA and customers the aircraft were airworthy. Neither Boeing nor the agency has identified safety incidents resulting from the slipup. But in June the agency issued a mandatory safety directive for airlines to inspect and take other actions regarding jets with the suspect parts.

Andrew Tangel contributed to this article.

Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 06, 2019 20:20 ET (01:20 GMT)

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