(Bloomberg) -- An air-bag crisis ensnaring the world’s largestautomakers is deepening after Honda Motor Co. disclosed the firstdeath tied to the device outside the U.S. and a federal grand jurysubpoenaed Takata Corp.

Defective Takata air bags caused the July 27 death in Malaysiaof a woman in a 2003 Honda City subcompact, said Akemi Ando, aspokeswoman for the carmaker. The company was notified of theaccident one month later and is now recalling more than 170,000additional vehicles worldwide because of a problem traced back to aTakata plant in Georgia, she said.

The fatal accident, expanding recalls and the emergence of anadditional manufacturing flaw reflect an intensifying disasteraffecting at least 10 automakers. While Honda has now called backalmost 6.2 million vehicles globally over Takata air bags since2008, the four deaths linked to the devices before today were allin the U.S.

“This just got further out of control, and we should look outfor more problems in Asia,” Ashvin Chotai, managing director ofresearcher Intelligence Automotive Asia, said by phone. “This isjust a nightmare, for regulators as well as for automakers andTakata. How do you contain this now?”

Faulty air-bag inflators made by Takata have ruptured and spewedmetal fragments at passengers, prompting safety campaigns byautomakers including Honda, Toyota Motor Corp. and General MotorsCo. Takata received a subpoena from a federal grand jury demandingdocuments and explanations for the defects, Hitoshi Sano, head ofinvestor relations, said today.

‘Deeply Apologizes’

Chairman Shigehisa Takada “deeply apologizes” for the Malaysiaincident, the grandson of the 81-year-old company’s founder said ina statement today. Takada, 48, didn’t attend an analyst briefingtoday held in Tokyo, where the company is based, and hasn’tappeared in public since its annual shareholder meeting in June,which was closed to media.

Takata shares, which climbed as much as 9.4% today before thedisclosure of the Malaysian death, pared gains and ended at 1,231yen in Tokyo, up 3.3% for the day. The stock has plunged 59% thisyear.

“Investors are thinking ‘not again,’ with negative news comingout one after another,” said Nobuyuki Fujimoto, a senior marketanalyst at SBI Securities Co., a Japanese online brokerage. “Takatastill has room to fall and is vulnerable to bad reports.”

Georgia Factory

The flaw prompting Honda’s recall today was traced back toproblems at Takata’s now-closed plant in LaGrange, Georgia,according to Ando, the automaker’s spokeswoman. Takata has alreadydisclosed issues with factories in Moses Lake, Washington, andMonclova, Mexico, in U.S. regulatory documents.

Japan’s Transport Ministry has asked all domestic carmakers toquickly check if the Georgia issue that affected Honda also appliesto their air bags, said Nobuhito Kiuchi, the official overseeingthe vehicle recalls.

“We continue to investigate Takata-supplied inflators,” DannyChen, a spokesman for Toyota City, Japan-based Toyota, said byphone. Chris Keeffe, a spokesman for Nissan Motor Co., declined tocomment.

Today’s expanded Honda recall involves five models including theFit and the Civic, Ando said. The company will call back about70,000 units sold in Japan, as well as vehicles in China, Europeand other overseas markets. None of the vehicles were sold in NorthAmerica.

Malaysian police could not immediately comment on the case.

Potential Hearing

The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee plans to hold a hearing asearly as next week where Takata and NHTSA officials are expected totestify, the Detroit News reported, without saying how it obtainedthe information. The newspaper said committee officials wouldn’tconfirm plans for a hearing, and that it could be delayed.

Takata has faced calls by U.S. senators for a criminalinvestigation into the company following a New York Times reportthat it tested air bag inflators in 2004 and discarded them withoutalerting regulators.

The company disputed that report today, saying that it conductedthe experiments in response to an unrelated air bag flaw and sharedthe findings with Honda and the National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration.

--With assistance from Ma Jie in Tokyo and Shamim Adam inKuala Lumpur.

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