(Bloomberg) -- An air-bag crisis ensnaring the world’s largest automakers is deepening after Honda Motor Co. disclosed the first death tied to the device outside the U.S. and a federal grand jury subpoenaed Takata Corp.
Defective Takata air bags caused the July 27 death in Malaysia of a woman in a 2003 Honda City subcompact, said Akemi Ando, a spokeswoman for the carmaker. The company was notified of the accident one month later and is now recalling more than 170,000 additional vehicles worldwide because of a problem traced back to a Takata plant in Georgia, she said.
The fatal accident, expanding recalls and the emergence of an additional manufacturing flaw reflect an intensifying disaster affecting at least 10 automakers. While Honda has now called back almost 6.2 million vehicles globally over Takata air bags since 2008, the four deaths linked to the devices before today were all in the U.S.
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