National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy told
the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee that her
investigators are looking at other instances in which Boeing employees removed
and then reinstalled door plugs on airplanes.
The investigation
stems from the January 5 incident in which a door panel blew off in Alaska
Airlines plane in midflight.
Apparently, four critical bolts that were supposed to be
reinstalled were not done so properly or not done at all.
Boeing previously said there is no documentation available
regarding the work. That has angered Committee Chairperson
Senator Maria Cantwell:“On this case, you’re saying in this case records don't exist,
but you have other records that show when plugs were opened and closed? There
are other instances where that kind of repair was documented?”
Homendy replied, “There are other instances where that work
would occur. We still have to review all those instances to see if that was
documented.”
Is documentation available if there were other incidents?
Whether or not other instances were found in which there was
documentation available would deal a blow to Boeing and reflect poorly on the
company, adding to the perception that Boeing is trying to impede the Alaska
Airlines investigation.
Or worse, that Boeing has a history of undocumented repair work.
Homendy suggested that the missing documentation on the Alaska
Airlines repair was an exception.
“The records don't exist that what we are looking for, but that
is, what we would call, an escape from normal process,” Homendy said. “We are
looking at other instances where a door plug was opened and closed, to make
sure those records are available. We are looking at how this happened.”
In other words, if documentation was available for repair work
on other planes, why isn’t it available for this particular incident involving
Alaska Airlines?
Homendy said that NTSB investigators are back at Boeing’s headquarters
this week.
“I don't think there is anyone from Boeing from (CEO) Dave Calhoun down that doesn't want to
know what happened here,” Homendy told the Committee. “They want to know and
they want to fix it. And we are there to help. But we are also there to look at
what more can be done, what the safety culture is, what the safety management
system is — it is relatively new – how that can be improved, and their quality
management system. We do have a lot of work to do.”
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