Washington Sen. Cantwell accuses Boeing of ‘stonewalling’ door plug investigation

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Washington state Senator Maria Cantwell is accusing Boeing of “stonewalling” a federal investigation into the door plug that flew off of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 after taking off from Portland International Airport in January and is calling on the company to cooperate with investigators.

Cantwell’s demands come after Wednesday’s National Transportation Safety Board Senate hearing, in which NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy testified that Boeing has not provided access to information — including Boeing’s protocols, documents on the removal and reinstalment of the door plug, and the names of the 25 personnel assigned to the door plug team.

“We have gone through emails, we’ve gone through texts, we’ve looked at pictures to begin to get a picture of the date in mid-September, the two dates in mid-September that we believe the work occurred,” Homendy testified. “We haven’t received that information directly from Boeing. We also believe we know what shift it occurred on. But we still — there is one team … that deals with the doors, of 25 people. Why we don’t have those names today, two months later, is really disappointing.”

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“Well, it’s beyond disappointing,” Sen. Cantwell responded. “We have an entire economy that depends on people getting this right. And I thought that the CEO said that they would cooperate to the fullest. So, it seems like this information is now stymieing your investigation, and it seems that it’s knowable, and that you should at least be able to talk to the individuals there.”

Additionally, Homendy noted the NTSB has not received information on Boeing’s procedures for storing and retrieving quality records and has not been able to verify if Boeing has a procedure for maintaining documents on when work is performed — including when door plugs are opened, closed, or removed, raising “concerns about quality assurance, quality management, safety management systems within Boeing.”

“Where it becomes a concern for us is when employees and others don’t feel safe to speak to us,” Homendy added.

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After the hearing, Cantwell sent a letter to Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, calling for the company’s full cooperation with the investigation and is giving the company two days to provide the NTSB with the requested information.

“Please provide this investigative information to the NTSB within the next 48 hours so they can conduct their investigation,” Cantwell wrote. “If complying with this demand is not possible for some reason, please provide me with a thorough explanation of why not within the same time period… We cannot delay the important work of federal safety investigators.”

In response to the testimony, Boeing said “We have deep respect for the NTSB and the critical role they play in aviation safety. Since the first moments following the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident, we have worked proactively and transparently to fully support the NTSB’s investigation. Our team works tirelessly with the NTSB team to respond comprehensively to all NTSB information requests and bring information to them that would be relevant to their investigation.”

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“Early in the investigation, we provided the NTSB with names of Boeing employees, including door specialists, who we believed would have relevant information. We have now provided the full list of individuals on the 737 door team, in response to a recent request. With respect to documentation, if the door plug removal was undocumented there would be no documentation to share. We will continue to cooperate fully and transparently with the NTSB’s investigation,” Boeing continued.

The hearing comes after the NTSB released a preliminary report in February that found the four bolts needed to secure the door plug were missing before the airplane was delivered to Alaska Airlines.

The bolts were initially removed to make repairs to five damaged rivets on the Boeing 737 MAX 9’s edge frame, which were discovered near the door plug on Sept. 1. However, a photo taken by a Boeing employee on Sept. 19 shows that the two “vertical movement arrestor” bolts and two “upper guide track” bolts, which prevent the door plug from moving upward, were not replaced following the repairs made by Spirit AeroSystems, the report states.

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