Boeing blamed missing documents for the Alaska Air incident, prompting NTSB condemnation

Renton, Washington
CNN
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For months, missing documents have hampered the investigation into how a door plug exploded on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max in January. This week, Boeing revealed that documents may have caused the problem in the first place.

was already well known No document found To show who worked on the door plug. At a press conference at Boeing’s 737 Max factory in Renton, Washington, Boeing attributed the lack of documentation to Four bolts are required to hold the door insert in place It was not installed before the aircraft left the factory in October. There was no work order telling the workers who had to reinstall the bolts what work to do.

Without the bolt, the door plug incident was inevitable. Fortunately, it’s not dangerous.

It is a sign Problems with quality of work On Boeing assembly lines. Those problems have become central Several federal investigations And Whistleblower DisclosuresAnd the reason Delay in jet deliveries causing A headache for airlines and passengers around the world.

But Boeing still ran into trouble with regulators for releasing details at this point. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Thursday reprimanded Boeing for releasing “non-public intelligence information” to the media. It said in a statement that the company had “flagrantly violated” the agency’s rules.

“During a media briefing Tuesday about quality improvements … a Boeing executive provided investigative information and an analysis of previously released factual information. Both actions are prohibited,” the NTSB said.

Boeing no longer has access to information generated by the NTSB during its investigation, the agency said, referring Boeing’s conduct to the Justice Department.

“As a party to many NTSB investigations over the past decades, few companies know the rules better than Boeing,” the NTSB said.

Boeing did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment outside regular business hours.

During Tuesday’s briefing, there was a particular problem with the Boeing Alaska Air door plug, as two different crews at the plant were accused of performing the task, one removing and the other reinstalling the door plug while the plane was in transit. Assembly tax.

First team crews removed the door insert to address problems with some rivets made by supplier Spirit Aerosystems. But they didn’t produce documentation indicating that the door panel was removed to do the job.

When another crew put the plug back in place, Boeing says the crew didn’t think the plane would actually fly in that condition.

Instead, they blocked the hole with a plug to protect the inside of the fuselage from the weather as the plane moved out. That team of employees often makes those kinds of ad-hoc fixes.

“The doors crew closes before moving the airplane out, but it’s not their responsibility to install the pins,” said Elizabeth Lund, senior vice president of quality for Boeing’s commercial aircraft division.

Those employees may have assumed that there was paperwork showing that the plug and bolt had been removed, and that the paperwork would prompt someone else down the line to install the bolts.

But without documentation, Lund said, no one else on the assembly line had a door plug removed or its bolts missing. Lund added that it is rare for a door plug to be removed after an aircraft from Spirit Aerosystems arrives, so no one knows the door plug needs attention.

“(Permanent) reinstallation is done by another team based on documentation that shows what work has not been completed,” Lund said. “But there was no documentation, so no one knew what was going on.”

The plane actually flew for about two months with the door plug on despite the lack of bolts. But minutes after the Alaska Airlines flight took off from Portland, Oregon on January 5, a door plug exploded, blowing a hole in the side of the plane. Passengers’ clothes and phones were ripped from them and sent flying into the night sky. But luckily none of the passengers were seriously injured and the crew was able to land the plane safely.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary findings identified the missing bolt, but the report did not assess blame for the crash. And the final report is not expected for another year or so. A spokeswoman for the NTSB said the safety agency was continuing its investigation and would not comment on Boeing’s explanation for how the mistake was made.

The board issued a preliminary report in February that said it discovered the bolts were missing as they left the Boeing factory, but it did not assess culpability. A final report is not expected for another year or so.

NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homandy has testified at congressional hearings about the missing documents.

Boeing is solving the problem by slowing down the speed at which planes move along assembly lines, and making sure planes don’t move forward with problems under the assumption that those problems will be fixed later in the assembly process, Lund said.

“We have slowed down our factories to ensure it is under control,” he said.

“I am very confident that the measures we have taken will ensure that every aircraft leaving this factory is safe,” he added.

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