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US agency imposes sanctions on Boeing for sharing investigation details on 737 MAX incident

Theo

New York:

A US investigative agency has sharply reprimanded Boeing for revealing details that were not supposed to be discussed publicly as part of the ongoing investigation into a near-catastrophic aircraft accident.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it would prevent Boeing from viewing the information collected during its investigation.

Boeing “blatantly violated” investigation rules set out in an agreement signed as a party to the investigation, the NTSB said in a statement late Wednesday.

The agency also prohibits Boeing from asking questions of other parties involved at a two-day investigative hearing on the case that the NTSB will hold in Washington in early August.

The investigation concerns an Alaska Airlines flight on January 5 with a Boeing 737 MAX that had to make an emergency landing after a fuselage panel burst during the flight.

Earlier this week, Boeing invited media to a tour and discussion of its efforts to improve quality control. An AFP reporter attended the event, which took place on Tuesday, under an agreement to keep information under wraps until Thursday morning.

But the NTSB said Boeing violated the agreement “by failing to provide public investigative information to the media and by speculating about possible causes of the January 5 door plug failure.”

“Although Boeing has participated in many NTSB investigations over the past decades, few know the rules better than Boeing,” the NTSB said.

Under the agreement signed by Boeing and the NTSB, the company is required to forward all comments regarding the Alaska Airlines investigation to the agency.

Boeing apologized to the NTSB and said the company “stands ready to answer any questions as the agency continues its investigation,” the company said in a statement.

“We conducted a detailed discussion of our safety and quality plan and provided context for the lessons learned from the January 5 accident,” Boeing said.

“We deeply regret that some of our comments, intended to clarify our responsibility for the accident and explain our actions, exceeded the NTSB’s role as a source of investigative information.”

What went wrong

In a preliminary statement in February, NTSB officials said four screws securing the door latch were missing. Part of the NTSB investigation is focusing on what went wrong.

The NTSB has taken issue with comments made by Elizabeth Lund, Boeing’s senior vice president of quality.

During a meeting with reporters, Lund discussed aspects of the work on the door plug.

She also said Boeing was working to fill a “gap” in missing documentation, adding that “it is the NTSB’s responsibility to determine who performed the work, and the investigation is ongoing.”

The NTSB responded that “Boeing portrayed the NTSB’s investigation in the briefing as a search for the person responsible for the work on the door plugs.”

“The NTSB is instead focusing on the probable cause of the accident and is not looking for an individual or liability issue,” the agency said.

The NTSB said it was also in “coordination” with the Justice Department, which plans to announce next steps soon after concluding that Boeing could face criminal prosecution for violating a 2021 non-prosecution agreement related to two fatal MAX crashes.

The NTSB will provide the Justice Department with “details about Boeing’s recent unauthorized release of investigative information related to the 737 MAX 9 door stop investigation,” the NTSB said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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