Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) is pushing back against the Federal Aviation Administration’s plan to fine Boeing (NYSE:BA) $3.1 million for safety lapses, arguing the penalty is far too small to drive change.
“For Boeing, such fines are easily absorbed as the cost of doing business, not a meaningful deterrent to dangerous behavior,” Blumenthal wrote in a letter to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford. “Unless penalties rise to the level that forces the company to invest in real safety reforms, the risks to the flying public will persist.”
The FAA said it identified hundreds of violations in Boeing’s (NYSE:BA) quality-control systems at the company’s 737 assembly line in Renton, Washington, as well as at Spirit AeroSystems’ (NYSE:SPR) fuselage plant in Wichita, Kansas.