The American Transportation Safety Agency (NTSB) sanctioned Boeing for its communication surrounding the January 5 incident during which a door of an Alaska Airlines aircraft came off in mid-flight, accusing the manufacturer of guide opinion. The facts concern a presentation given on Tuesday for a group of journalists by the vice president for quality, Elizabeth Lund, at the Renton (Washington State) factory.
“In that briefing, Boeing portrayed the NTSB investigation (into the January 5 incident) as a search for the individual responsible for installing the door.” which was torn off during an Alaska Airlines flight, without causing any casualties, the regulator said in a press release, published Thursday. But the NTSB says it is rather “interested in the probable cause of the accident, and not in placing blame on an individual or establishing responsibility”. According to the first elements of the NTSB investigation, several bolts supposed to block the door of the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 were missing.
Missing bolts
The agency collected written records and photos that show Boeing employees removed four bolts at those locations during an inspection at the Renton factory before the plane was delivered last October. The operation was carried out to replace five damaged rivets in the cabin of the aircraft. Other photos taken after the rivets were changed show that in at least three points, bolts had not been reinstalled. This door was used to block an exit and was not intended to be opened, this model already having enough emergency exits in this configuration.
During her briefing, Elizabeth Lund dismissed the responsibility of the team responsible for closing the door. “They didn’t reinstall the rivets. It wasn’t up to them to do it.”, said the manager, while specifying that Boeing was not able to identify the employees who should have carried out this task but did not do so. Due to what it considers to be a failure in its communication, the NTSB has decided to deprive Boeing of access to information collected by the agency during its investigations into the January 5 incident.
The NTSB will also send a summons to Boeing for a hearing into the incident on August 6 and 7. “We sincerely regret that our statements infringed on the NTSB’s prerogatives as a source of information on the investigation”, reacted a Boeing spokesperson to AFP. The latter indicated that the elements revealed during the presentation “aimed to clarify our responsibility in the accident and explain the measures we are taking” to remedy possible failures.
