Boeing stonewalling Alaska Airlines investigation, federal accident chief says
Boeing is refusing to cough up crucial records of work performed on the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft at the heart of the probe.
The head of the federal board investigating a midair door blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight in January told senators Wednesday that Boeing is refusing to cough up crucial records of work performed on the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft at the heart of the probe.
Jennifer Homendy, the head of the independent National Transportation Safety Board, said Boeing has so far stonewalled her agency’s repeated requests for a paper trail that would show how the door plug in question was installed or what team performed or oversaw the work. Homendy said her agency is aware that the work in question is performed by a team of 25 people and a manager at a facility in Renton, Washington, where the 737 MAX is made — but that Boeing has refused to release their names.
Homendy also said her agency has been unable to interview that team’s manager, who has been out on medical leave.
“We don’t have the records,” Homendy told the Senate Commerce Committee. “We don’t have the names of the 25 people in charge of doing that work in that facility. It is absurd that two months later, we don’t have that.” Speaking later with reporters, Homendy said despite her frustration, she is not suggesting any “malfeasance” on Boeing’s part.
Homendy said the foot-dragging calls into question whether Boeing and its contractor Spirit AeroSystems tracked the aircraft’s assembly as meticulously as they should have, or whether the documents exist at all, or ever did. Spirit Aero manufactures the body of the aircraft, including the faulty door panel that had been installed on the plane.
In a statement, Boeing repeatedly praised the NTSB’s work and said that “early in the investigation,” it had provided the NTSB with “names of Boeing employees, including door specialists, who we believed would have relevant information.” Boeing said “in response to a recent request,” it has “now provided the full list of individuals on the 737 door team.” The company also observed that if the door plug’s removal was “undocumented, there would be no documentation to share.”
Joe Buccino, a Spirit Aero spokesperson, said as a party to the NTSB’s investigation, the company can’t comment, but that Spirit Aero is “coordinating with the NTSB to address the chair’s comments regarding this matter.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the top Republican on the committee, said it is “utterly unacceptable, and the parties who are being investigated by NTSB need to cooperate fully, and Congress expects them to cooperate fully.” He asked Homendy to give the committee a status update on whether Boeing has cooperated with their document requests within one week. “I expect you to have that list of 25 names,” Cruz said.
Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said it she was disappointed to hear that Boeing has not been as forthcoming as it has promised and recounted a promise made by CEO David Calhoun, who vowed that Boeing will “work transparently with” airlines and regulators “to understand and address the causes of the event.”
“I thought that the CEO said that they would cooperate to the fullest. So, it seems like this information is now stymieing your investigation,” Cantwell said.
The NTSB last month released a preliminary factual report showing that four key bolts needed to hold the door in place were missing. The agency has been investigating, in part, how that situation came to be and where the fault for it lies.