Safety officials chastise Boeing for attributing the Alaska Air incident to missing paperwork.

TFD – The recent door plug incident on a Boeing 737 Max flight has raised significant safety concerns, with investigations revealing a critical documentation error. Boeing’s efforts to address the issue highlight ongoing challenges in quality control and compliance with safety regulations.

The investigation into how a door plug blew off a 737 Max on an Alaska Airlines flight in January has been hampered for months by missing paperwork, making it challenging to identify the person responsible for the almost fatal error. Boeing revealed last week that the initial cause of the issue might have been the documentation.

It was previously well known that no records existed indicating who had serviced the door plug, which broke off the aircraft after it had risen to about 16,000 feet, leading to an uncontrollably high decompression that hurt several people and even tore off a passenger’s shirt.

However, during a press event at the Renton, Washington, Boeing 737 Max production, the company said that the reason the four bolts required to secure the door plug were not placed before the aircraft departed the facility in October was due to a lack of paperwork. The work order indicating the necessary work was never given to the workers who needed to reinstall the bolts.

The door plug event was almost a given in the absence of the bolts. Fortunately, it wasn’t lethal.

It’s an indication of issues with the caliber of work being produced on the Boeing production lines. These issues are now the subject of several federal investigations, the subject of whistleblower disclosures, and the reason behind aircraft delivery delays that are giving airlines and travelers worldwide anxiety.

It looks like Boeing got involved again.

But by disclosing the information at this point, Boeing might have put itself in even greater hot water with authorities. Boeing received criticism from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Thursday for providing the media with “non-public investigative information.” The corporation had “blatantly violated” the agency’s guidelines, according to a statement it released.

“A Boeing official presented an analysis of previously available factual material and provided investigative information during a Tuesday media briefing about quality improvements. The NTSB declared, “Both of these actions are prohibited.”

The NTSB announced that Boeing would no longer have access to the data it had collected during its inquiry and that it was sending the Department of Justice a report on Boeing’s actions.

Few organizations know the regulations better than Boeing, as the NTSB noted, having participated in several investigations over the previous few decades.

Timothy LeBaron, the director of the NTSB Office of Aviation Safety, informed Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun in a letter on Thursday that the media briefing this week was conducted without the regulator’s knowledge or approval.

“Boeing must take all appropriate measures to guarantee that investigative data is shielded from public disclosure,” he authored. There have been flagrant violations of NTSB regulations by such a release or withholding of important information from our investigators.

In response, Boeing stated that it organized the briefing in an attempt to “take responsibility” and be open about its involvement in the disaster. “Shared context on the lessons we have learned from the January 5 accident,” the statement read.

“We deeply regret that some of our comments, intended to make clear our responsibility in the accident and explain the actions we are taking, overstepped the NTSB’s role as the source of investigative information,” said Boeing’s statement. “We apologize to the NTSB and stand ready to answer any questions as the agency continues its investigation.”

The NTSB also blasted Boeing for saying earlier this month that there was no design flaw or manufacturing defect to blame for an uncommon and dangerous back-and-forth roll that occurred on a Southwest 737 Max flight in May. Calhoun was informed on Thursday by the NTSB, which is looking into that incident, that it had not yet reached a decision and that both organizations needed to speak with one voice when making public remarks.

faulty documentation record

During the Tuesday briefing, Boeing stated that the Alaska Air door plug was likely not secured in the first place because the task was divided between two groups of workers at the plant: one group was in charge of taking the door plug off and the other group was in charge of putting it back on while the aircraft was being assembled.

The initial team of workers took out the door stopper in order to fix several rivets that were manufactured by Spirit AeroSystems, a supplier. However, in order to perform that repair, they failed to produce the documentation proving they had taken out the door plug and the four bolts holding it in place.

Boeing claims that when another group of workers replaced the plug, they had no idea the aircraft would really take off in that state.

Instead, as the plane moved outdoors to a different part of the factory site, they were only using the plug to block the hole and shield the inside of the fuselage from the weather. These kinds of band-aid solutions are frequently made by that group of workers.

Elizabeth Lund, senior vice president of quality for Boeing’s commercial airplane division, stated that although the doors team closes the aircraft before it is carried outside, they are not in charge of installing the pins.

These workers probably believed there was documentation proving the plug and bolts had been taken out, and that documentation would force someone else in the chain to put the bolts in.

However, Lund claimed that without the documentation, nobody on the assembly line would have known that the door plug had ever been taken out or that its bolts were missing. Lund noted that it is uncommon for a door plug to be removed from a Spirit AeroSystems jet after it arrives, therefore nobody knew the door plug needed to be changed.

According to the documentation outlining the incomplete tasks, “Permanent reinstallation is completed by a different team,” according to Lund. “However, no paperwork was present, so no one knew to inquire further.”

A disaster waiting to happen

The plane actually flew for about two months with the door plug in place despite the lack of bolts. However, the door stopper blew out a few minutes after the Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon, on January 5, leaving a huge hole in the side of the aircraft. Phones and clothes belonging to passengers were snatched from them and launched into the night sky. But fortunately no passengers were seriously injured, and the crew was able to land the plane safely.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary investigations had detected the missing bolts, but the report did not assign culpability for the tragedy. Furthermore, a final report is not anticipated for at least a year. According to an NTSB representative, the safety body is carrying out its inquiry and won’t comment on Boeing’s justification for the error.

The board discovered the bolts were missing when it left the Boeing factory, according to a preliminary report it released in February. However, the study did not assign culpability. It will take a year or longer to get the final report.

Since the release of the preliminary report, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy has testified in congressional hearings regarding the missing documents.

In order to solve the issue, Boeing is slowing down its assembly lines and ensuring that aircraft don’t leave the ground with issues because they believe they will be fixed later on in the assembly process, according to Lund.

“To ensure that this is under control, we have slowed down our factories,” she remarked.

She continued, “I am very confident that the actions that we took” will guarantee the safety of every aircraft leaving our factory.