A photo from the National Transportation Safety Board shows seats that were near the door plug expelled from a Boeing 737 Max 9 in flight. Seats 26A and 26B were unoccupied — a fact that helped prevent the incident from being worse, officials said. NTSB hide caption
Boeing is under heightened scrutiny from regulators and the public after a door plug panel blew off a jet in midair two months ago. Now the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation. Several Boeing 737 Max planes under construction in Renton, Wash. are shown outside the company's plant on February 27, 2024. Jovelle Tamayo for NPR hide caption
Boeing workers at the Renton Municipal Airport in Washington finalize assembly of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max jet on Feb. 27. An FAA audit faulted Boeing for "multiple instances" of quality control shortcomings. Jovelle Tamayo for NPR hide caption
Boeing announced a management shakeup - including the ouster of the leader of the 737 Max production line. At the Singapore Airshow, miniature models of Boeing aircraft including the 737 Max (front) are displayed on February 21, 2024. Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
The door plug area of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft, seen with the paneling removed, awaits inspection Wednesday at the airline's facilities at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in SeaTac, Wash. Lindsey Wasson/AP hide caption
This photo shows the gaping hole where the panel used to plug an area reserved for an exit door on a Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner blew out Jan. 5, shortly after the flight took off from Portland, Ore., forcing the plane to return to Portland International Airport. National Transportation Safety Board via AP hide caption
The first Alaska Airlines passenger flight on a Boeing 737-9 Max airplane takes off on a flight to San Diego from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle on March 1, 2021. Ted S. Warren/AP hide caption
A Boeing 737 MAX jet lands following a Federal Aviation Administration test flight at Boeing Field in Seattle, Wash., in June 2020. Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Zipporah Kuria, of London, carries a photo of her deceased father Joseph Waithaka as she walks into federal court for the Boeing arraignment hearing in Fort Worth, Texas on Thursday. Waithaka was killed in 2019 crash of a Boeing 737 Max airliner. LM Otero/AP hide caption
A United Airlines plane takes off over another plane on the runway at San Francisco International Airport last year. United Airlines has announced a new order of 270 narrow-bodied planes from Boeing and Airbus. Jeff Chiu/AP hide caption
A Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplane sits on the assembly line at Boeing's 737 assembly facility in 2019. Ted S. Warren/AP hide caption
Boeing said Friday that some of its 737 Max planes may have an electrical problem, leading airlines to ground dozens of the jets. An American Airlines flight on a Boeing 737 Max is seen here in December in Miami. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption