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

Verified

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 contractor Spirit AeroSystems, driven by production goals and leading to frequent quality control failures.
The Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 door plug was removed for rivet repairs but reinstalled without its crucial bolts, and this critical maintenance step lacked any official documentation or tracking.
Contributing factors to the oversight included poor communication between Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems employees, high turnover, and low morale among technicians.

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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.