WASHINGTON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The head of the Federal

Aviation Administration will testify on Sept. 25 before the

Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on the

planemaker's oversight of Boeing ( BA ), a committee aide told

Reuters.

The committee, led by Senator Richard Blumenthal, in June

sharply questioned then Boeing ( BA ) CEO Dave Calhoun on the

planemaker's safety record.

The hearing later this month, titled "FAA Oversight of

Boeing's ( BA ) Broken Safety Culture", comes as FAA Administrator

Michael Whitaker has ramped up scrutiny of the planemaker since

a Jan. 5 mid-air emergency in a new Alaska Airlines

Boeing 737 MAX 9 and acknowledged it should have done more

before the incident.

"This is a very long term journey for Boeing ( BA ). I think it's

going to be measured in years not months," Whitaker told

reporters on Wednesday on the sidelines of a conference in

Washington, D.C.

Whitaker in February barred Boeing ( BA ) from boosting production

of its best-selling plane and required them to submit a quality

improvement plan. Whitaker also said the agency will continue

increased on-site presence at Boeing ( BA ) for the foreseeable future.

In July, Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell

asked the FAA to conduct a thorough review into its oversight of

Boeing ( BA ) and other manufacturers, raising serious questions about

the government's scrutiny of the planemaker.

After the Jan. 5 mid-air emergency involving the MAX that

lost a door plug at 16,000 feet, the FAA conducted a 737 MAX

production audit into Boeing ( BA ) fuselage supplier Spirit and found

multiple instances where the companies had failed to comply with

manufacturing quality control requirements.

In June, Whitaker said at a Senate Commerce hearing that

before January the FAA had been "too focused on paperwork audits

and not focused enough on inspections" at Boeing ( BA ).

The planemaker faces a potential strike as early as Friday,

if most of its factory workers in the Pacific Northwest vote on

Thursday to reject a much-criticized new contract, just as it

wrestles with chronic production delays and mounting debt.