US investigators sanction Boeing for sharing information on mid-air blowout

Boeing had ‘blatantly violated’ federal rules by providing ‘non-public investigative information’, investigators said.

United States investigators have sanctioned Boeing for revealing details of a probe into a 737 MAX mid-air blowout and said they would refer its conduct to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), prompting the embattled planemaker to issue an apology.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Thursday that Boeing had “blatantly violated” its rules by providing “non-public investigative information” and speculating about possible causes of the January 5 Alaska Airlines door-plug emergency during a factory tour attended by dozens of journalists.

The decision sheds new light on strains between the crisis-hit planemaker and government agencies at a time when it is trying to avoid criminal charges that are being weighed by the  DOJ ahead of a July 7 deadline.

“As a party to many NTSB investigations over the past decades, few entities know the rules better than Boeing,” the NTSB said.

The NTSB said Boeing would keep its status as a party to the investigation into the Alaska Airlines emergency, but would no longer see information produced during its probe into the accident, which involved the mid-air blowout of a door plug with four missing bolts.