A Federal Aviation Administration audit out on Monday found “multiple instances” in which Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.
The six-week audit, prompted by the Jan. 5 blowout of a door plug on an Alaska Airlines 737-9 Max plane, is part of the FAA’s ongoing investigation into the incident and the two companies’ roles in it.
The agency provided Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems with summaries of the audit’s findings.
The FAA’s audit comes after a congressionally mandated independent review panel released a report last week that found a disconnect between Boeing employees and senior management regarding the company’s safety culture.
The FAA has given Boeing 90 days to develop a plan to address the safety and manufacturing quality control issues. The plan must incorporate the audit results and the panel’s findings.
“By virtue of our quality stand-downs, the FAA audit findings and the recent expert review panel report, we have a clear picture of what needs to be done,” Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun said in a Feb. 28 statement. “Transparency prevailed in all of these discussions. Boeing will develop the comprehensive action plan with measurable criteria that demonstrates the profound change that Administrator Whitaker and the FAA demand.”
Spirit AeroSystems “welcome the audit, we welcome the findings,” a company executive told Manufacturing Dive. “We are reviewing the findings, we are working with the FAA and Boeing on appropriate corrective measures.”
The audit results coincide with the Department of Justice's current investigation into Boeing’s safety management system after the Alaska Airlines incident, Bloomberg reported last week.
The DOJ is exploring whether the Alaska Airlines door blowout violated the agency’s 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement with Boeing over the 2018 Lion Air and 2019 Ethiopia Airlines crashes. If prosecutors decide Boeing breached its contract, criminal charges could be filed against the aircraft maker.
Boeing is making other moves to resolve its production and quality woes. The company is in talks with Spirit AeroSystems about acquiring the major supplier, which was spun out from Boeing in 2005.
“Although there can be no assurance that we will be able to reach an agreement, we are committed to finding ways to continue to improve the safety and quality of the airplanes on which millions of people depend each and every day,” Boeing said in a Feb. 28 statement regarding the possible acquisition.
