SEATTLE, June 27 (Reuters) - Boeing ( BA ) is planning a

briefing for high-level European regulatory officials about

changes to the way it makes planes, a senior company executive

said, after a January mid-air panel blowout sparked a safety

crisis.

Boeing ( BA ) has been under pressure over factory controls since

Jan. 5, when a door plug tore off an Alaska Airlines 737

MAX 9 jet, in an incident blamed on missing bolts.

Elizabeth Lund, Boeing's ( BA ) senior vice president quality, said

on Tuesday the planemaker has a briefing with the top level of

the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) coming up, with

the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) participating.

The company will do the same with other regulators.

"We will ensure they are fully aware of all the steps we are

taking as we go through this," Lund told reporters during a

visit to the company's 737 factory in Renton, Washington, a

Seattle suburb.

EASA's acting head said in March the agency would suspend

its indirect approval of Boeing's ( BA ) jet production if warranted,

but added he felt reassured that the planemaker was tackling its

latest safety crisis.

Under a transatlantic pact, the FAA and EASA regulate the

factories of their respective planemakers - Boeing ( BA ) and Airbus

- and recognise each other's safety approvals. That

relationship has been tested in the aftermath of two fatal MAX

crashes in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

In February, the FAA told Boeing ( BA ) to develop a plan to

address "systemic quality-control issues."

Boeing ( BA ) said it has increased investment in training,

simplified work instructions and increased supplier oversight,

after the Alaska Airlines MAX 9 jet made it to the end of the

factory line with rivets that needed correcting.

Boeing ( BA ) has also introduced certain production milestones its

planes will need to hit in order to advance to the next build

position. The planemaker will consider mechanics' concerns if

they believe the jet should be held back, said Jennifer Boland

Masterson, a senior production director in the 737 program.

Lund said the Alaska Airlines door plug was opened without

paperwork to fix the rivets, and the missing bolts were not

replaced. The team that came in and closed the plug was not

responsible for reinstalling the bolts, she said.

The accident, which led to an emergency landing, is under

investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The NTSB said early on Thursday it was sanctioning Boeing ( BA )

for disclosing non-public details of the ongoing investigation

in the media briefing where Lund's comments were made and it was

referring the planemaker's conduct to the Justice Department.

During the briefing, Lund said Boeing ( BA ) had "confidence that

no other airplane was delivered like this based on the complete

fleet check that we did," in reference to the Alaska Airlines

jet.

Boeing ( BA ) is "willing and prepared" to obtain AS9100

certification, an internationally recognized aerospace standard

for quality that the planemaker requires for its suppliers, she

said. Boeing ( BA ) is already compliant with the standard and has been

audited to the level as if it was certified, Lund added.