NTSB Investigators Still Slowed by Boeing

Image: Boeing manufacturing facility. (Photo Credit: wolterke / Adobe Stock)
Image: Boeing manufacturing facility. (Photo Credit: wolterke / Adobe Stock)
Rich Thomaselli
by Rich Thomaselli
Last updated: 10:50 AM ET, Fri March 15, 2024

The National Transportation Safety Board would like to know which Boeing employees worked on the door panel that fell off an Alaska Airlines jet mid-flight.

But Boeing’s CEO said he can’t tell the government agency.

Apparently, the airline manufacturer did not keep records about who worked on that particular plane.

True or not, it still creates the impression that Boeing is impeding the investigation.

“The absence of those records will complicate the NTSB’s investigation moving forward,” National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy wrote in a letter to a Senate committee that is looking into the Jan. 5 accident on the Boeing 737 Max 9.

Homendy told senators last week that the NTSB asked Boeing for security camera footage that might help identify who worked on the panel in September. She was told, however, that the company maintains a standard practice of erasing footage after 30 days and re-using the videotapes.

Boeing did provide the names of 25 employees who work on door panels but reportedly did not release the specific names of the employees who worked on that project.

She said she even called Boeing CEO David Calhoun.

“He stated he was unable to provide that information and maintained that Boeing has no records of the work being performed,” Homendy wrote.

She testified before Congress last week, prompting a tersely worded letter to Boeing from Senator Maria Cantwell.


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Rich Thomaselli

Rich Thomaselli

Associate Writer

Editor Associate Writer true 9281 14744 Rich Thomaselli has written for TravelPulse since 2014 and has been a professional journalist for nearly 40 years. His work has appeared in USA Today, the New York Times and New York Yankees publications. He is an 11-time writ

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