WASHINGTON, May 30 (Reuters) -

Boeing's ( BA ) outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun and other senior

company officials met with the head of the Federal Aviation

Administration for about three hours on Thursday to discuss the

planemaker's comprehensive plan to address "systemic

quality-control issues."

Boeing ( BA ) had been directed by FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker

in late February to produce the plan after he barred Boeing ( BA ) from

expanding 737 MAX production after a door panel blowout during a

Jan. 5 flight on a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9.

Whitaker will talk about the meeting with reporters later today.

The meeting was Calhoun's second high-profile meeting

with Whitaker this year as Boeing ( BA ) seeks to have costly

production limits lifted by the FAA after soaring quality

concerns compelled the regulator to slow its rapidly increasing

737 production schedule.

Calhoun is due to leave the company by the end of the

year as part of a broader management shake-up announced in the

wake of the Alaska Airlines incident, but Boeing ( BA ) has not yet

named a replacement.

The meeting included other senior Boeing ( BA ) leaders

including Stephanie Pope, the new head of Boeing Commercial

Airplanes as well as Boeing's ( BA ) head of quality Elizabeth Lund and

Mike Fleming, Boeing ( BA ) senior vice president and general manager,

airplane programs, the sources said.

Boeing ( BA ) said this month it has added new training

material for manufacturing and quality roles averaging about 20

to 50 more training hours per employee, while more than 7,000

new tools and equipment have been provided for commercial

airplane work.

"We anticipate the FAA will take whatever time is necessary

to review that plan and hold us accountable," Calhoun said at

Boeing's ( BA ) annual meeting on May 17. "This is more of a beginning

than it is an end."

Whitaker said last week that Boeing ( BA ) faces a "long road" to

address safety issues. He added the 90-day plan "is not the end

of the process. It's the beginning and it's going to be a long

road to get Boeing ( BA ) back to where they need to be making safe

airplanes."

The FAA said earlier Boeing ( BA ) must take steps to improve its

Safety Management System (SMS) program, which it committed to in

2019 and combine it with a Quality Management System to "create

a measurable, systemic shift in manufacturing quality control."

Boeing ( BA ) is currently producing significantly fewer than the

38 737 MAXs per month it is permitted under the FAA directive.

A February meeting between Boeing ( BA ) executives and

Whitaker lasted about seven hours.

Boeing ( BA ) faces a separate criminal investigation into the

MAX 9 mid-air emergency. The Justice Department said this month

that Boeing ( BA ) breached its obligations in a 2021 agreement

shielding the planemaker from criminal prosecution over fatal

737 MAX crashes.

Boeing ( BA ) denied it has breached the deal. The Justice

Department directed Boeing ( BA ) to respond by June 13 and intends to

decide whether to prosecute Boeing ( BA ) by July 7.