Senator Richard Blumenthal calls US aviation regulator’s $3.1m Boeing fine ‘inadequate’

Democratic US Senator Richard Blumenthal said the Federal Aviation Administration’s proposed $3.1 million fine against Boeing for a series of safety violations is inadequate and wants the agency to explain how it calculated the penalty.

“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 sent on Tuesday and released on Wednesday to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, an appointee of Republican President Donald Trump. “Unless penalties rise to the level that forces the company to invest in real safety reforms, the risks to the flying public will persist.”