Four bolts used to secure a panel that ended up being blown off an Alaska Airlines plane during a flight last month were removed from a Boeing Co. in Renton, Wash., according to a preliminary report published Tuesday by The National. It appears that it was removed at the factory and never replaced. Transportation Safety Board.
Boeing records say the panel, known as a door plug, was opened to repair a damaged rivet in the plane's fuselage. The report does not say who removed the bolt that holds the door plug in place. However, the safety board said that after the door was reattached to the plane after the rivets were repaired, all the bolts did not appear to be back in place.
As evidence, the NTSB provided photos of the plane's interior after the door plugs were reinstalled and before repairs were made. In the image, it looks like 3 of the 4 bolts are missing. The location of the fourth bolt is covered with insulation.
The image was attached to “text messages between Boeing team members on September 19, 2023,” the report said. Boeing employees were “discussing repairs to the interior after the rivet work was completed during the second shift of the day,” the report said.
The safety board said there was no evidence the plug had been reopened after it left the Boeing factory. The aircraft was delivered to Alaska Airlines at the end of October.
The report brings increased scrutiny on Boeing, which has struggled for weeks to limit the fallout from the crashes, following two fatal 737 Max 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019. This raises new questions about whether sufficient efforts have been made to improve safety. It also answered an important question about why the door plug of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 came off shortly after takeoff from Portland International Airport in Oregon.
“Regardless of the ultimate conclusion, Boeing is responsible for what happened,” Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said in a statement.
“This kind of incident should not happen on a plane departing from a factory,” he added. “We must do better for our customers and their passengers. We are implementing a comprehensive plan to strengthen quality and stakeholder trust.”
The NTSB has ruled out other possible causes of the door plug failure. The part was manufactured in Malaysia in March and received in May by Spirit AeroSystems, a Wichita, Kansas-based Boeing supplier that makes Max planes, the report said. The safety commission said Spirit detected a minor problem with the “sealing surface smoothness” of the door plug, but the report said the problem did not require any further manufacturing work and that Spirit clarified that it does not show any other quality notifications.
“We continue to work closely with Boeing and regulators to continuously improve our processes and remain focused on meeting the highest standards of safety, quality and reliability,” Spirit spokesman Joe Buccino said in a statement. “There is,” he said.
According to the report, the aircraft was shipped to Boeing on August 20 and arrived at the Renton factory on August 31. There, damage to rivets commonly used to join and secure aircraft parts was reported on September 1. Once the plug was removed to gain access to the rivet, a Spirit AeroSystems employee in Renton completed the repair.
After being delivered to Alaska Airlines, the aircraft also installed wireless internet equipment in Oklahoma City from November 27 to December 7. However, the contractor responsible for the work, AAR, announced that it had modified “approximately 60” Alaska Airlines 737 Max aircraft. The report said no door plugs had to be removed to perform work on any of the nine planes.
The safety commission said it would continue investigating what documentation was used “to authorize the opening and closing” of the door plugs.
Almost immediately, the Alaska Airlines accident caused the Federal Aviation Administration to ground some of its Max 9 jets, disrupting the flight schedules of Alaska Airlines and United Airlines for several days, the two U.S. airlines that operate the model. did.
“This incident should never have happened and will not happen again,” the FAA said in a statement Tuesday after the safety board's report was released.
The FAA has also indefinitely restricted Boeing's ambitious plans to ramp up production of all Max jets, plunging the company into a quagmire of uncertainty. The company had planned to mass produce 42 jets a month this year and 50 jets a month next year, but it will probably stabilize at 38 jets for several months. Boeing executives last week declined to release this year's financial outlook, citing incidents and the need to focus on safety.
Furious, airline executives took the unusual step of publicly criticizing Boeing and expressing doubts that it would be able to deliver the ordered aircraft on time.
The incident and its ramifications have left Boeing, one of the world's two largest aircraft manufacturers, in the familiar position of trying to weather a crisis with unknown financial costs and reputational damage. Just five years ago, the company spent billions of dollars to make its planes safer and restore its reputation after two Max 8 crashes killed nearly 350 people. These crashes were caused by defects in the aircraft's flight stabilization systems.
Boeing is once again under fire, scrambling to reassure customers, regulators and lawmakers that it is squarely focused on improving quality control. Mr. Calhoun visited Spirit in Wichita. Boeing also held an event where employees at its Renton plant stopped work for a day to participate in quality sessions. And he vowed to reward employees who “speak up to slow things down, if necessary.”
But despite efforts to fix the problem, Boeing announced Sunday that its suppliers discovered new problems in the fuselages of dozens of unfinished 737 Max planes last week. The supplier discovered that “the two holes may not have exactly met our requirements.”
Without disclosing the name of the supplier, a Spirit spokesperson said team members identified an issue within the past week that did not meet engineering standards. Boeing said the problem will force Boeing to rework about 50 planes and delay deliveries.
Spirit AeroSystems CEO Patrick Shanahan said on a call with analysts Tuesday that the company, like Boeing Co., is increasing the number of tests it conducts.
Also Tuesday, FAA official Mike Whitaker told a House committee that the agency would increase on-site oversight of Boeing's aircraft production.
“Going forward, we will be closely scrutinizing and monitoring production and manufacturing activities at more sites,” Whitaker told the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's aviation subcommittee.
In addition to restricting Boeing's production increases, the agency has launched an investigation into the aircraft manufacturer's compliance with safety standards. The company has also begun an audit to look at the company's production of the Max, which Whittaker said would take six weeks.
He said the agency has placed about 20 inspectors at Boeing and six more at Spirit.
Santur Nerkar Contributed to the report.
