*

NTSB criticizes Boeing's ( BA ) safety culture and FAA oversight

*

NTSB chair: 'It's nothing short of a miracle' that no

fatalities, serious injuries

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January 2024 incident led to criminal investigation and

Boeing ( BA )

CEO's resignation

(Rewrites with board meeting ongoing in paragraphs 1-5)

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - A U.S. National

Transportation Safety Board investigation found ineffective

actions by Boeing ( BA ) and ineffective oversight by the

Federal Aviation Administration that led to a mid-air cabin

panel blowout of a new 737 MAX 9 flight in January 2024 that

spun the planemaker into a major crisis, officials said on

Tuesday.

The board criticized Boeing's ( BA ) safety culture and its failure to

install four key bolts in a new Alaska Airlines MAX 9.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a meeting Tuesday to

determine the probable cause that the incident was entirely

avoidable because the planemaker should have addressed

unauthorized production work long ago that was identified in

numerous Boeing ( BA ) internal audits, reports, quality alerts and

regulatory compliance issues.

"The safety deficiencies that led to this accident

should have been evident to Boeing ( BA ) and to the FAA," Homendy

said. "It's nothing short of a miracle that no one died or

sustained serious physical injuries."

The accident prompted the Justice Department to open a

criminal investigation and declare that Boeing ( BA ) was not in

compliance with a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement. CEO Dave

Calhoun announced he would step down within a few months of the

mid-air panel blowout.

Homendy praised new Boeing ( BA ) CEO Kelly Ortberg but said "he

has his work cut out for him, a lot of challenges to address,

and that's going to take time."

The incident badly damaged Boeing's ( BA ) reputation and led to a

grounding of the MAX 9 for two weeks and a production cap of 38

planes per month by the FAA that still remains in place.

Boeing ( BA ) created no paperwork for the removal of the 737 MAX 9

door plug - a piece of metal shaped like a door covering an

unused emergency exit - or its re-installation during

production, and did not know which employees were involved, the

NTSB said last year.

Boeing ( BA ) did not comment ahead of the meeting.

Then FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker said in June 2024

the agency was "too hands off" in Boeing ( BA ) oversight and it has

boosted the number of inspectors at Boeing ( BA ) and Spirit

AeroSystems ( SPR ) factories.

Boeing ( BA ) had agreed last July to plead guilty to a criminal fraud

conspiracy charge after two fatal 737 MAX crashes in Indonesia

and Ethiopia. But it last month struck a deal with the Justice

Department to avoid a guilty plea.

The Justice Department has asked a judge to approve the

deal, which will allow Boeing ( BA ) to avoid pleading guilty or facing

oversight by an outside monitor but will require it to pay an

additional $444.5 million into a crash victims fund to be

divided equally per crash victim.