Investigators looked into the cargo airline safety standards before the disaster, and the plane crashed into the ocean off the coast of Hawaii.
The agency didn’t go into depth about Rhoades’ supposed flaws. The firm did not reply to phone and email queries seeking comment right away.
This week, the firm has one jet left in service, a Boeing 737-200 similar to the one that crashed.
After informing an air traffic controller that one of the jet’s engines had lost power, the pilots sought to return to Honolulu, fearing that the other engine on the 46-year-old plane might also fail. The wreckage of the jet was discovered by investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, but the data recorders, which may offer clues as to what caused the plane to go down, have yet to be retrieved.