- The FAA is upping its oversight of United Airlines following a spate of safety events.
- A tire fell off a United Boeing 777 and another plane veered off the runway, among others.
United Airlines is facing tighter scrutiny from the Federal Aviation Administration following a string of safety incidents.
In a Friday memo to employees seen by Business Insider, Sasha Johnson, a vice president of corporate safety, said: "We will begin to see more of an FAA presence in our operation as they begin to review some of our work processes, manuals, and facilities."
"As part of this effort, the FAA will also pause a variety of certification activities for a period of time," she added.
Bloomberg reports that the regulator is also considering more drastic actions like preventing United from adding new flight routes, and from flying paying customers on newly delivered planes.
United is already being stopped from approving or promoting pilots to fly on different plane models, Bloomberg reported.
In a statement to Bloomberg, the FAA said: "Certification activities in process may be allowed to continue, but future projects may be delayed based on findings from oversight."
The moves could hamper the airline's "United Next" plan, which aims to expand its capacity with 800 new jets by 2032.
United has seen a series of safety events over the past few weeks.
They include a Boeing 737 Max 8 that experienced stuck rudder pedals during the landing phase on February 6.
A month later, a tire was filmed falling off a Boeing 777 before it crushed a car in an airport parking lot. And the day after that, another Boeing jet saw its landing gear collapse when it veered off the runway at Houston Intercontinental Airport.
Almost all the recent incidents took place on Boeing jets as they make up the majority of United's fleet. But unlike the Alaska Airlines blowout, they point to maintenance problems rather than faults by the planemaker.