Investing.com -- Shares in Boeing (NYSE:BA) dipped in premarket U.S. trading on Monday on a news report that the U.S. Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation into a dangerous mid-air fuselage breach in January on one of the planemaker's 737 Max jets operated by Alaska Airlines.
Citing people and documents related to the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that investigators had contacted some passengers on the Jan. 5 flight, which was forced to make an emergency landing following the blow-out. No-one was killed in the incident.
According to the WSJ, the probe has also included interviews with pilots and cabin crew who were on the flight.
The investigation could factor into the Justice Department's review of whether Boeing fully complied with an earlier settlement reached after two fatal crashes of its 737 Max jet in 2018 and 2019, the WSJ reported.
For its part, Alaska Airlines said in a statement that it was "normal" for the DOJ to be conducting an investigation into this type of event, adding that it is cooperating with the authorities and does not believe it is a "target" of the probe.
The WSJ report was part of a stream of negative headlines for Boeing over the weekend.
On Sunday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that federal aviation regulators would be looking into the mishap with "an enormous amount of rigor." A newspaper in New Zealand, meanwhile, reported on Monday that at least 50 people had been injured on a Latam Airlines Group flight from Sydney to Auckland following a technical problem on a Boeing 787-9 plane.