Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, speaks during an investigative hearing on the explosion of a left middle exit door plug of a Boeing 737-9 MAX during Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on January 5, 2024, at the National Transportation Safety Board headquarters in Washington DC, the United States, on August 6, 2024. (Photo by Bryan Olin Dozier/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Bryan Olin Dozier | Anadolu | Getty Images
TO Boeing The safety executive said at a federal safety hearing Tuesday that the company is working on design changes to prevent a repeat of the near-catastrophic explosion of a door stopper on a nearly new 737 Max 9 earlier this year.
The National Transportation Safety Board, the agency in charge of aircraft accident investigations in the US, released more than 3,000 pages of documents ahead of its full two-day hearing on Flight 1282, including interviews with employees of Boeing and its embattled airframe manufacturer. Spirit Aerosystemssome of which pointed to a new review.
“I just want to caution you that this is not a public relations campaign by Boeing,” said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. “This is an investigation into what happened on January 5th. Do you understand?”
According to preliminary results of the investigation, the bolts that were supposed to hold the door in place were not in place. While there were no serious injuries, the crash once again highlighted Boeing's safety procedures and a series of manufacturing failures that required changes at the company's factories, including one that led to the door stopper being removed but not secured last year.
“They're working on some design changes that will allow the door, the stopper, to not close if there's a problem, until it's firmly secured,” said Elizabeth Lund, who heads safety for Boeing's commercial airplane unit. The changes would be implemented within a year, Lund said.
An exhibit is displayed during a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigative hearing in Washington, DC, U.S., Tuesday, August 6, 2024.
To Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The blowout plunged Boeing back into crisis mode and prompted a management shakeup, including the appointment of a new chief executive, Robert “Kelly“ Ortberg, an aerospace industry veteran who previously headed Rockwell Collins, will start work Thursday.
The crash has also delayed deliveries of new planes to customers, further eroding the iconic U.S. manufacturer's relationship with airlines and regulators.
Outgoing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun has said Boeing is working to end so-called roaming work, in which faulty aircraft components must be repaired out of sequence before planes are delivered to customers. Boeing is in the process of buying back Spirit AeroSystems, a move the company says will allow it to better control quality.
“We've been taken into uncharted territory, to the point where … we were replacing doors like we were replacing our underwear, forward doors, cargo doors, E/E bay doors,” said one Boeing worker, whose name was redacted from testimony. “Planes come in with cats every day.”
