The FBI told passengers of the Alaska Airlines blowout flight they may be victims of a crime, report says

• The FBI told Alaska Airlines blowout passengers they might be victims of a crime, per The Seattle Times.
• It confirmed there is a criminal investigation into the Boeing 737 Max incident.
• The DoJ is also reviewing its deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing following previous 737 crashes.

Passengers on the Alaska Airlines blowout flight have been told by the FBI that they might be victims of a crime, The Seattle Times reported.

It comes after the Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation into the Boeing 737 Max 9 incident.

A door plug, which covers a deactivated emergency exit, came off the plane in midair on January 5. In its preliminary report, the National Transportation Safety Board said the plane left Boeing's factory missing key bolts designed to secure the door plug. Boeing's 737 factory is based near Seattle.

According to The Seattle Times, the FBI's Seattle office sent letters to passengers confirming the criminal investigation.

"As a Victim Specialist with the Seattle Division, I'm contacting you because we have identified you as a possible victim of a crime," the letter reportedly said.

"A criminal investigation can be a lengthy undertaking, and for several reasons, we cannot tell you about its progress at this time," it added.

An attorney representing some of the blowout passengers, Mark Lindquist, told the newspaper he expects the FBI will ask to interview those on board.

He called the letter "encouraging" because "it validates their sense that this was a severe event that should not have happened." 

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the criminal probe would occur in tandem with an investigation into whether Boeing violated the terms of a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement.

The planemaker agreed to pay $2.5 billion after it admitted to misleading regulators, related to the 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 which killed 346 people.

Boeing also agreed to strengthen its compliance program and to more stringent requirements for reporting any issues. The agreement expired two days after the blowout.

Boeing declined to comment. The Seattle FBI office did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside US working hours.