FAA under investigation for its oversight of Boeing

Federal authorities began a criminal investigation of how Boeing’s 737 Max was certified to fly passengers before the latest crash in Ethiopia involving the new jet, according to people familiar with the probe.

The U.S. investigation was prompted by information obtained after a Lion Air 737 Max 8 crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta on Oct. 29, said one person who wasn’t authorized to speak about the investigation and asked not to be named.

The investigation has taken on new urgency after the March 10 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 near Addis Ababa that killed 157 people. It is being conducted in part by the Transportation Department’s inspector general, who conducts investigations in conjunction with the Justice Department.

Ethiopia’s transport minister said Sunday that flight-data recorders showed “clear similarities” between the crashes of that plane and the Lion Air flight.

The Justice Department is gathering information about the development of the 737 Max, including through a grand jury subpoena, according to a person familiar with the matter who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about it. The Justice Department declined to comment.

Both Boeing and the Transportation Department declined to comment about the investigation.

The grand jury’s involvement was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal. Separately, a Seattle Times investigation published Sunday found that U.S. regulators delegated much of the plane’s safety assessment to Boeing and that the company delivered an analysis with crucial flaws.

The Times quoted unnamed engineers who said Boeing had understated the power of the flight-control software in an analysis submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration. The Times said the analysis also failed to account for how the system could reset itself each time a pilot responded— in essence, gradually ratcheting the horizontal stabilizer into a dive position.

FAA employees warned seven years ago that Boeing had too much sway over safety approvals of new aircraft, prompting a Transportation Department audit that found the agency hadn’t done enough to “hold Boeing accountable.”