FAA allows Boeing to increase 737 Max production nearly two years after door plug flew off plane

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it will allow Boeing to produce more 737 Max airplanes by increasing the monthly limit that it imposed after a door plug blew off an Alaska Airlines jet that the company built.

Boeing can now produce 42 Max jets per month, up from 38, after safety inspectors conducted extensive reviews of the aerospace company's manufacturing lines to ensure an increase in production can be done safely, the FAA said.

The agency had set a cap on production shortly after the terrifying January 2024 incident involving the Alaska Airlines 737 Max jet. In practice, though, the production rate fell well below the ceiling last year as the company contended with investigations and a machinists’ strike that idled factories for almost eight weeks. But Boeing said over the summer that it had reached the monthly cap in the second quarter and would eventually seek the FAA's permission to start producing more of the planes.

A spokesperson for Boeing said Friday that the company followed a “disciplined process” to make sure it was ready to safely increase production, using safety guidelines and performance goals that it set with the FAA.

“We appreciate the work by our team, our suppliers and the FAA to ensure we are prepared to increase production with safety and quality at the forefront,” Boeing said in a statement.

The FAA also said Friday this won’t change the way it oversees Boeing production processes and its efforts to strengthen the company’s safety culture, adding that FAA inspectors at Boeing plants have continued to work through the federal government shutdown that began Oct. 1.

Just last month, the FAA also restored Boeing's ability to perform final safety inspections on 737 Max jetliners and certify them for flight. Boeing hadn't been allowed to do that for more than six years, after two crashes of the then-new model killed 346 people. The FAA took full control over 737 Max approvals in 2019, after the second of the two crashes that were later blamed on a new software system Boeing developed for the aircraft.

Earlier this year, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg faced questions from a Senate committee about the production rate of the 737 Max, with lawmakers seeking reassurance from Ortberg that the company was prioritizing quality and safety over meeting production targets for profit.

"Just to be very clear, we won’t ramp up production if the performance isn’t indicating a stable production system," Ortberg said at the April hearing. “We will continue to work on getting to a stable system.”

The incident involving the Alaska Airlines flight that prompted the production cap on Max jets was among a series of alleged safety violations by Boeing between September 2023 and February 2024 that led to the FAA seeking $3.1 million in fines from the company.

FILE - Traffic drives in view of a Boeing Co. production plant, where images of jets decorate the hangar doors on April 23, 2021, in Everett, Wash. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A mass shooting in which 15 people were killed during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach was “a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State,” Australia’s federal police commissioner Krissy Barrett said Tuesday.

The suspects were a father and son, aged 50 and 24, authorities have said. The older man was shot dead while his son was being treated at a hospital on Tuesday.

A news conference by political and law enforcement leaders on Tuesday was the first time officials confirmed their beliefs about the suspects' ideologies. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the remarks were based on evidence obtained, including “the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized.”

There are 25 people still being treated in hospitals after Sunday’s massacre, 10 of them in critical condition. Three of them are patients in a children's hospital.

Also among them is a man who was captured on video appearing to tackle and disarm one assailant, before pointing the man’s weapon at him and then setting the gun on the ground.

Those killed ranged in age from 10 to 87 years old. They were attending a Hanukkah event at Australia's most famous beach Sunday when the gunshots rang out.

Albanese and the leaders of some of Australia's states have pledged to tighten the country's already strict gun laws in what would be the most sweeping reforms since a shooter killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania in 1996. Mass shootings in Australia have since been rare.

Officials divulged more information as public questions and anger grew on the third day following the attack about how the suspects were able to plan and enact it and whether Australian Jews had been sufficiently protected from rising antisemitism.

Albanese announced plans to further restrict access to guns, in part because it emerged the older suspect had amassed his cache of six weapons legally.

“The suspected murderers, callous in how they allegedly coordinated their attack, appeared to have no regard for the age or ableness of their victims,” said Barrett. “It appears the alleged killers were interested only in a quest for a death tally.”

The suspects traveled to the Philippines last month, said Mal Lanyon, the Police Commissioner for New South Wales state. Their reasons for the trip and where in the Philippines they went would be probed by investigators, Lanyon said.

He also confirmed that a vehicle removed from the scene, registered to the younger suspect, contained improvised explosive devices.

“I also confirm that it contained two homemade ISIS flags,” Lanyon said.

Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.

Rabbi Yossi Friedman speaks to people gathering at a flower memorial by the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, following Sunday's shooting in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)