FBI joins criminal probe of Boeing 737 Max certification: report

The FBI is joining a criminal probe into the certification of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft, the Seattle Times reported Wednesday.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is lending assistance to the Department of Transportation, which already began investigating the approval process of the plane model that has been involved in two deadly crashes in the last year.

{mosads}The investigation into how the Federal Aviation Administration approved the plane for flight safety reportedly began shortly after a Lion Air 737 Max 8 crashed in Indonesia in October, killing 189 people.

The Justice Department’s criminal division is overseeing the investigation and the Transportation Department’s Inspector General is carrying it out, according to the Seattle Times.

Following a fatal crash on March 10 involving the same type of aircraft in Ethiopia, the investigation reportedly expanded.

The investigation issued a subpoena on March 11 for information from someone involved in the plane’s development, according to the Associated Press.

The FBI will be playing a support role in the investigation, the Seattle Times reported.

Boeing declined to comment on the investigation to The Hill.

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the investigation.

The Seattle Times reported last week that the FAA had pushed engineers to delegate certification in order to Boeing to speed up the certification process.

The FAA has said it followed the traditional certification process for the planes.