FILE PHOTO: A seal is seen on Garuda Indonesia's Boeing 737 Max 8 airplane parked at the Garuda Maintenance Facility AeroAsia, at Soekarno-Hatta International airport near Jakarta, Indonesia, March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan

(Reuters) - The FBI has joined the criminal investigation into the certification of the Boeing Co’s 737 MAX, the Seattle Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

This comes after Reuters reported here that federal prosecutors and the U.S. Department of Transportation are scrutinizing the development of the 737 MAX jetliners in the wake of two deadly crashes in five months.

More than 300 MAX passenger jets have been taken out of service globally following a fatal plane crash in Ethiopia nine days ago.

An FBI spokeswoman would neither confirm nor deny an investigation.

A Boeing spokesman did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Boeing’s shares fell as much as 4 percent on the report before recovering to be marginally lower in after-hours trading.