Boeing, AAL To Pay Stiff Fines

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has reached agreement with American Airlines and Boeing Commercial Airplane Group on settlement of civil penalties totaling more than $3.3 million. Both settlements involve alleged violations of Federal Aviation Regulations.

American has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle 50 pending flight operations and maintenance enforcement cases filed by the FAA from 1997 through 2003. The cases include actions against American, its American Eagle regional airline unit and Reno Air, a Nevada-based airline bought by American in 1998.

Among the 50 violations covered in the settlement agreement are maintenance, flight operations, training, safety and record-keeping irregularities. In many cases, they included operation of aircraft when they were allegedly not in compliance with regulations. Under terms of the agreement, the settlement and payment do not constitute admissions of wrongdoing by American, American Eagle or Reno Air.

Boeing has paid a civil penalty of $824,800 for the company’s alleged failure to maintain its quality control system on the 737, 747, 767, and 777 airplane programs. Failure to follow procedures for a company’s FAA production certificate violates the regulations.

FAA investigations from October 1998 to April 2002 revealed that some Boeing production processes did not comply with the company’s quality assurance program. Boeing has since worked with the FAA to identify areas to improve quality assurance. The company will audit improvements through random sampling, establish procedures for evaluating design change work, measure actions, and report results to the FAA.

This announcement is in accordance with the FAA's policy of posting information for the public on newly issued enforcement actions in cases involving penalties of $50,000 or more.

FMI: www.faa.gov