Boeing paid the FAA about $3.1 million in civil penalties for safety violations, including issues related to the door plug blowout of a 737-9 Max aircraft operated by Alaska Airlines, Reuters was first to report this week.
The FAA in September 2025 proposed fines against Boeing totaling $3,139,319 for violations that it said occurred from September 2023 through February 2024, including the January 2024 door plug incident, which resulted in no deaths or serious injuries. The fines also covered “interference with safety officials’ independence,” the agency said.
Boeing’s payment of the fine had not been disclosed before this week.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released its final report on the Max 9 incident in July 2025, concluding the door plug blowout’s probable cause to be “Boeing’s failure to provide adequate training, guidance, and oversight necessary to ensure that manufacturing personnel could consistently and correctly comply with its parts removal process.”
The agency cited an alleged lack of adequate employee training and oversight by both Boeing and the FAA, as well as a lack of child restraint systems for children under 2.
Among the NTSB’s recommendations for Boeing were to equip a redesigned door plug on newly manufactured aircraft. It recommended the FAA issue an airworthiness directive (AD) requiring all in-service aircraft equipped with the Mid-Exit Door (MED) plug that blew out to be retrofitted with the new design.
When it announced the $3.1 million fine, the FAA in September 2025 said it also found “hundreds” of quality system violations at Boeing’s 737 factory in Renton, Washington, as well as at the 737 factory in Wichita, Kansas, operated by subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems. Boeing reacquired Spirit AeroSystems in late 2025.
The FAA also alleged that the manufacturer presented a pair of unairworthy aircraft to the agency for airworthiness certificates. It further said that a Boeing employee not part of the company’s organization designation authorization (ODA) pressured an ODA employee, who found that a 737 Max did not comply with certain standards, to approve the aircraft for delivery in order to meet the company’s schedule.
The FAA said it used its “maximum statutory civil penalty authority” when issuing the fines.
Boeing Oversight Continues
The FAA took immediate action against Boeing in the wake of the January 2024 door plug blowout, grounding all 171 737-9s operated by U.S. airlines or in American territory at the time.
The following month, the agency required Boeing to develop a roadmap intended to “reset” the company’s safety culture and increased the number of on-site safety inspectors at the 737 factories in Washington and Kansas. The FAA also conducted an audit of the manufacturer’s production line that it said raised “non-compliance issues” with its manufacturing process control, parts handling and storage, and product control.
The agency in an AD required four design changes that it said were intended to address “unsafe conditions that led to the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max.”
Though the FAA has increased its oversight of Boeing, in October 2025 it lifted production limits that allowed the manufacturer to produce 42 Max jets per month, up from 38. Earlier this year, Boeing’s CEO confirmed reports that it was studying a ramp-up to 70-75 per month but said it had no firm plans to do so.
In September 2025, the FAA allowed Boeing to resume issuing airworthiness certificates for some 737 Max aircraft, with the two issuing certificates on alternating weeks. The agency in July restored full responsibility to Boeing, permitting it to issue airworthiness certificates at the end of the 737 Max production process.
The regulator said it would “continue inspections, audits, and monitoring of Boeing’s production system including critical assembly activities, production quality trends, and compliance with approved type design and engineering requirements.” It said the oversight will include “closely observing and assessing Boeing’s Safety Management System (SMS) and safety culture.”