Federal Aviation Administration

The agreement, which will give controllers 10 hours off between shifts and 12 hours off before and after a midnight shift, comes after close calls between planes that were following orders from controllers.

The FAA says Boeing informed the agency in April that required inspections to confirm that the wings were properly bonded to the carbon fiber fuselage on certain 787 jets were not completed.

The move follows a series of recent issues at the airline, including a piece of the outer fuselage falling off one jet, an engine fire and a plane losing a tire during takeoff.

Authorities received emergency calls at the same time about a structure fire and an aircraft that went off radar three miles from a Florida airport. It is still unknown how many fatalities there were.

The Federal Aviation Administration is recommending that airlines visually inspect the door plugs of Boeing 737-900ER jets after some airlines reported unspecified issues with the bolts.

Authorities said they do not know the cause of the hot air balloon accident at the time. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating.

About 170 planes were grounded after the "door plug" on a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight. United and Alaska are the two big U.S. carriers that fly Boeing jets with door plugs.

The approval of Michael Whitaker, former deputy FAA administrator, ends a span of nearly 19 months in which the agency was without a Senate-confirmed chief.