Dorris French

Lingering problems Approval of those three models is still uncertain. Boeing has warned investors that losses are likely to continue through 2025. It is on the verge of having its credit rating downgraded to junk for the first time in its history, and it could end up being booted from the Dow Jones industrial average, where it has resided as one of the nation’s most significant companies since 1937. Boeing’s (BA) stock plunged by about a third in 2024, after closing down more than 2% on Monday following the Korean crash. Its previous CEO and several other prominent executives were ousted. And its seemingly unending string of bad headlines raised serious questions about the company’s ability to get its safety and quality problems under control. Soon after the Alaska Air incident, the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary investigation found that the plane had left a Boeing factory two months earlier missing the four bolts needed to hold the door plug in place. The incident led to numerous federal investigations, not just by the NTSB but also by Congress, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Justice Department. The FBI notified those on the plane that they might be considered crime victims, and the FAA’s probe led to increased oversight of Boeing by the agency, including limits on how many of the planes it could produce. Here’s a rundown of the other problems it experienced in the last year. Pleading guilty The Alaska Air incident reopened Boeing to new prosecution in a case it had agreed to settle three years earlier. In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to federal charges that it had deceived the FAA during the initial certification process for the 737 Max. Under the deal, it agreed to pay up to $487 million in fines, double what it originally paid under a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement. The most serious consequence for Boeing was an agreement to operate under the oversight of a new government-appointed monitor. But in October, a federal judge rejected the plea partly because of questions about how a government-appointed monitor kraken market would be selected, leaving the ultimate punishment still uncertain.