- The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into the January 5 incident, according to The Wall Street Journal
- A door stopper blew off an Alaska Airlines flight, endangering the lives of the 171 passengers and forcing the plane to make an emergency landing
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The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 flight that suffered a near-catastrophic blowout at 16,000 feet.
A door stopper blew off mid-flight on January 5 with 171 passengers and crew on board, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon.
Investigators have now contacted some passengers and informed them they may be victims of a crime, and interviewed pilots and flight attendants, according to documents seen by The Wall Street Journal.
The investigation may not result in formal charges of wrongdoing, but it will inform a Justice Department agency on whether Boeing has met the requirements of the settlements reached after the two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019.
If they have not met the terms of the settlement, Boeing could be prosecuted on a charge of fraud by the United States.
The latest developments in the investigation into Boeing add to the company’s woes, which include a civil investigation in addition to other recent high-profile incidents involving its jets.
Six Alaska Airlines passengers have sued Boeing after their horror flight in which a door stopper blew out at 16,000 feet, forcing a dramatic emergency landing in Oregon
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun speaks to reports at the Capitol in January after the MAX 9 plane was grounded
Alaska Airlines told The Journal, “In an event like this, it is normal for the DOJ to conduct an investigation. We are fully cooperating and do not believe we are a target of the investigation.’
The new criminal investigation follows civil investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA, which found “several instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.”
The criminal investigation will examine whether Boeing met the terms of the 2021 settlement reached after the fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
The first occurred when a Max 8 operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air crashed into the Java Sea in October 2018.
The second was when an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 crashed almost straight into a field six minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa in March 2019.
Boeing reached a $2.5 billion settlement with the FBI and the Department of Transportation in the wake of the crashes, admitting that two former employees had misled the FAA about how much training a new air traffic control system would require.
If the Justice Department finds that Boeing violated the terms of that settlement, they could be prosecuted on the original charge of defrauding the United States.
Boeing declined to comment on the investigation. DailyMail.com contacted Alaska Airlines for comment.
Boeing is also facing a civil lawsuit from a group of passengers aboard the plane.
In January, an Alaska Airlines flight suffered a near-catastrophe when an aircraft door blew out at 16,000 feet above Portland
There were no serious injuries from the terrifying midair failure, but passengers’ belongings including phones flew out of the plane
Earlier this week, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board accused Boeing of failing to provide some key information sought in its ongoing investigation into the mid-air cabin door emergency.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said investigators have sought the names of the 25 people working on door stoppers at a Boeing facility in Renton, Wash., but have not received them from Boeing.
“It’s absurd that two months later we don’t have it,” Homendy said at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday.
Boeing insisted that it had initially given the NTSB some of the names of Boeing employees, including door specialists, who were believed to have relevant information.
Senator Ted Cruz, the top Republican on the Commerce Committee, called it ‘completely unacceptable’ that the NTSB did not receive full cooperation from Boeing.
Homendy also confirmed that the MAX 9 door plug had moved during previous flights, citing markings on the door.
The doorjamb incident has been followed by asbad press for Boeing, which has grabbed headlines in recent weeks for problems with planes — including one engine explodes on a flight out of Texas and a wheel falls off at takeoff in San Francisco.