The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has criticized Boeing for a lack of answers related to the mid-air explosion of a Boeing 737 Max earlier this year.
Earlier this year, a door plug on an Alaska Airlines plane blew off in flight, sparking an investigation into how the plug became detached from a Boeing 737 Max. In a preliminary report released earlier this year, the NTSB said four bolts that secure the door plug became missing after it was opened in September for rivet repair work.
The NTSB said no records about how the doors were installed had been turned over to investigators, and Boeing said it had no documentation showing the door plugs were installed.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy expressed frustration at Boeing’s lack of answers during a hearing on Wednesday, according to multiple reports.
“We don’t know, they don’t know, and that’s the problem,” she told reporters. CNN.
According to CNN, she asked Boeing executive Hector Silva whether such an issue could happen again, and Silva responded “no” to questions about whether he was “100 percent sure that a defect won’t happen tomorrow” and whether he was “100 percent sure that unauthorized removal will never happen.”
Homendy told reporters that the incident should not have happened. Reuters.
“This should have been discovered years ago,” she said.
“There have been numerous Boeing audits, FAA audits, compliance reviews and compliance action plans that point to a history of unauthorized work and unauthorized removals,” she added.
On the first day of NTSB hearings on Tuesday, Boeing factory workers said they felt pressured to quickly complete work they didn’t feel qualified to do, the Associated Press reported. One door worker said he had no special training on door plugs, according to the AP.
The Associated Press also reported that the Alaska Airlines co-pilot described the flight as “chaotic” when the door plug blew off during a hearing on Tuesday.
The Hill has reached out to Boeing for comment.
The Associated Press contributed.
