Boeing, the largest aircraft manufacturer in the U.S., is refusing to provide information on the Alaska Airlines plane that lost a large chunk of its wall in January while in flight, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) told senators on Wednesday.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that Boeing was refusing to tell investigators the names of people on a 25-member team that worked on a door plug that came off the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 minutes after it had taken off from Portland. Homendy also said that the company has not provided documentation about a repair job on the panel that blew out of the plane, forcing the flight to make an emergency landing.
“Boeing has not provided us with the documents and information that we have requested numerous times over the past few months, specifically with respect to opening, closing, and removal of the door,” the NTSB chair said.
“It’s absurd that two months later we don’t have that,” she added. “Without that information, that raises concerns about quality assurance, quality management, [and] safety management systems.”
.@NTSB Chair @JenniferHomendy to @SenTedCruz: "Boeing has not provided us with the documents and information that we have requested numerous times over the past few months, specifically with respect to opening, closing, and removal of the door…it's absurd…" pic.twitter.com/0AfbusPuss
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 6, 2024
Footage shared on social media showed the aftermath of the door plug blowing off the plane as passengers were forced to put on oxygen masks until the flight safely landed. There were reportedly more than 170 passengers on the flight and six crew members. No one was injured during the incident.
An Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing last night after a panel blew out shortly after takeoff. Thankfully, no serious injuries were reported.
The airline has temporarily grounded its fleet of Boeing 737-9 Max aircraft. pic.twitter.com/tgnGe8thrI
— Morning Brew ☕️ (@MorningBrew) January 6, 2024
According to an NTSB report, four bolts that are designed to keep the door plug from falling off the Boeing 737 Max 9 were missing before the plug blew off the Alaska Airlines flight, ABC News reported last month. The NTSB found that on September 23, 2023, at Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington, contractors with Spirit AeroSystems replaced damaged rivets on a frame next to the door plug, but photo evidence showed that when the workers closed the plug, bolts were missing in three locations, according to the NTSB report.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) responded to Homendy’s revelations during the hearing, saying that Boeing’s alleged refusal to hand over vital information was “utterly unacceptable.”
“The parties who are being investigated by NTSB need to cooperate fully, and Congress expects them to cooperate fully because you have an obligation to the American public to get to the bottom of what happened,” Cruz added.
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The senator then requested Homendy to inform the committee in writing by next Wednesday if Boeing has cooperated with NTSB requests, saying that he expects the agency to have the names of the 25 people who worked on the plane’s door plug.
Retired aviation expert Ira Astrachan told The Daily Wire that the NTSB’s focus on finding information on the team members who worked on the Alaska Airlines door plug is misguided. Rather than looking into a specific worker to cast blame on, the federal agency should investigate the processes of how Boeing and its contractors sign off on fixes to commercial aircraft, Astrachan said.
Boeing told ABC News that it has “worked proactively and transparently” to support the NTSB investigation.
“Early in the investigation, we provided the NTSB with names of Boeing employees, including door specialists, who we believed would have relevant information,” Boeing said. “We have now provided the full list of individuals on the 737 door team, in response to a recent request. With respect to documentation, if the door plug removal was undocumented there would be no documentation to share.”
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded over 170 Boeing 737 Max 9s after the incident, but Alaska Airlines has resumed flying the Boeing 737 Max 9 following a fleet inspection in late January.