Boeing sanctioned for sharing information on Alaska Airlines failure

Boeing released some details of its investigation into the January accident during a news conference at the Renton, Washington, campus where the company conducts final assembly of its 737 Max airplane. The company had invited members of the media to a series of briefings ahead of the Farmborough International Airshow next month.

Companies and organizations involved in NTSB investigations sign agreements not to make information public Information about the investigations. “Because Boeing has been involved in many NTSB investigations over the past decades, few know the rules better than Boeing,” the NTSB said in a statement.

“We deeply regret that some of our comments, which were intended to clarify our responsibility for the accident and explain our actions, exceeded the NTSB’s role as a source of investigative information,” Boeing said in a statement Thursday. “We apologize to the NTSB and stand ready to answer any questions as the agency continues its investigation.”

The sanctions are another slap in the face for Boeing, which has struggled to recover from a seemingly endless barrage of troubling headlines. Last week, Boeing CEO David Calhoun appeared before a Senate subcommittee where he was repeatedly criticized for his leadership of the aerospace giant. And this week, there were reports that federal prosecutors are recommending that senior Justice Department officials prosecute Boeing in connection with the deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.

Elizabeth Lund, senior vice president in charge of quality control and quality assurance efforts at Boeing, briefed reporters on Tuesday on the accident and the steps the company was taking to prevent further quality control failures.

Lund told reporters that Boeing found the jet’s fuselage was damaged when it arrived at the Renton plant, but continued with final assembly while the company and Spirit AeroSystems, the supplier that builds the part, discussed what to do with five faulty rivets. Lund said the plane was at the end of the production line when it was determined the rivets needed to be replaced.

But for that work to be done, a panel in the fuselage that housed a door had to be removed. The plug was removed, but no records were created to document the work — a violation of Boeing’s policy, Lund said. The rivets were replaced. Another Boeing crew then performed the final step of “buttoning” the plane together, which included closing the door plug, Lund said.

“They didn’t put the pins back in,” she said. “That’s not their job. Their job is to just close the case, and they’re relying on existing records to do that.”

Lund said that because the door seal was tight, the jet passed Boeing’s own flight test and was able to be flown by Alaska Airlines about 150 times before the rupture in January. But she stressed that the company had taken numerous measures to prevent such an incident in the future.

This is not the first time the NTSB has taken Boeing to task during its months-long investigation into the January 5 accident.

Boeing had promised full transparency to investigators, but at a hearing before the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in March, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy publicly rebuked the company for failing to provide investigators with key information, including the names of those involved in dismantling and reassembling the door panel.

NTSB officials also said they would coordinate with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division to forward any details they discover that may be relevant to the ongoing criminal investigation into the blown door plug.