Agency contends plane maker knowingly certified some 130 Boeing 737 jets despite installing suspect parts.  

The proposed penalty doesn’t apply to any 737 MAX models, the latest version of Boeing’s best-selling workhorse jets that has been grounded for months. PHOTO: GARY HE/REUTERS

Boeing Co. was hit with a proposed $3.9 million penalty by U.S. air-safety officials who said the company installed defective parts inside the wings of around 130 737 NG aircraft and then knowingly vouched they met all federal safety requirements.

As part of Friday’s action by the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency indicated that the parts—designed to guide movable panels called slats on the front of wings—were used despite being identified as potentially substandard by a Boeing subcontractor in the fall of 2018. Over the next eight months, according to the FAA, the Chicago plane maker certified the affected jets as meeting all airworthiness requirements.

Excerpt from WSJ
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