NTSB Grills Boeing Over Max 9 Door Plug Loss

Aircraft giant addresses its manufacturing process during the first day of hearing in Washington, D.C.

Meg Godlewski

Wednesday, August 07, 2024 at 11:13 AM ET

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Edited By: tccjeremy

Boeing is testifying at a two-day NTSB hearing in Washington, D.C. [Shutterstock]

Key Takeaways:

NTSB testimony revealed a chaotic production environment at Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, where pressure to meet production goals led to frequent mistakes and assembly failures.
The door plug involved in the Alaska Airlines incident was removed at the Boeing factory to repair substandard rivets and was subsequently reinstalled without its four crucial bolts.
A critical lack of documentation and poor communication meant the missing bolts were not identified before the aircraft was delivered, allowing it to fly for approximately 100 cycles in an unsafe condition.
Underlying issues contributing to these failures included poor communication between Boeing and contractor teams, low morale, and high employee turnover, ultimately leading to the January blowout and the grounding of 737 Max 9s.

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On Tuesday in Washington, D.C., the National Transportation Safety Board heard testimony from Boeing officials and contractors from Spirit AeroSystems that painted a picture of a chaotic workplace where the drive to meet production goals was making employees work so fast that mistakes were frequent and assembly did not pass quality inspection.

Wednesday is Day 2 of the NTSB hearing about the loss of a door plug from a Boeing 737 Max 9 in January after takeoff in Portland, Oregon.