Quartz
Image Credit: iStock
Boeing paid a $3.1 million FAA safety fine in January, but the payment was never publicly disclosed. The penalty covered hundreds of quality violations, including failures linked to the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 door plug blowout.
Boeing paid $3.1M FAA safety fine without public disclosure
Author: Cris Tolomia
Boeing paid a $3.1 million fine to the Federal Aviation Administration for a series of safety violations, with the payment made in January and never disclosed to the public, the FAA told Reuters on Wednesday.
The FAA confirmed that Boeing remitted the entire $3,139,319 penalty that had been proposed in September 2025, with Boeing itself acknowledging the transaction, according to Reuters.
The violations occurred between September 2023 and February 2024 and included actions connected to the January 5, 2024, door plug blowout aboard an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9, according to the FAA. The agency also found that Boeing interfered with the independence of safety officials and presented two aircraft that were not airworthy for FAA certification.
The FAA identified hundreds of quality system violations at Boeing’s 737 assembly plant in Renton, Washington, and at Spirit AeroSystems’ 737 fuselage factory in Wichita, Kansas, the agency said. In one case documented by the agency, a Boeing employee leaned on a colleague who was carrying out responsibilities delegated by the FAA, pushing that person to clear a 737 MAX for handover despite that colleague’s own conclusion that the plane fell short of regulatory requirements.
The Alaska Airlines blowout, in which investigators determined that a door plug had been installed without four essential bolts, triggered a temporary grounding of MAX 9 jets and prompted the FAA to impose a ceiling of 38 aircraft on Boeing’s monthly 737 output. That cap was lifted in October 2025. In July, the FAA said it would allow Boeing to issue its own airworthiness certificates for all 737 MAX and 787 aircraft following a safety review.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who previously investigated Boeing safety issues and chaired a Senate panel that probed the Alaska incident, said the fine was insufficient. “For Boeing, such fines are easily absorbed as the cost of doing business, not a meaningful deterrent to dangerous behavior,” Blumenthal said. A report issued by that panel detailed how Boeing whistleblowers had come forward with warnings about deficiencies in the company’s manufacturing operations.
Credits: TCA, LLC.