by Donald Wood
Last updated: 9:35 AM ET, Thu March 7, 2024
United States Sen. Maria Cantwell, Chair of the Science,
Manufacturing and Transportation Committee, has scolded Boeing after learning
that the manufacturer has allegedly not fully cooperated and withheld critical
documents in the investigation of the January 5 incident in which a door panel
blew off an Alaska Airlines plane.
The senator said the airplane manufacturer needs to cooperate
fully and immediately with the investigation after hearing the testimony of Jennifer Homendy, Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
At issue are plugs that were supposed to hold the
door in place but were improperly installed or not installed.
Homendy said that Boeing failed to provide key
documents or make personnel available regarding the accident, and as a result,
Cantwell sent a tersely worded letter to Boeing. The NTSB has accused the
airplane manufacturer of not providing all of the requested information.
The government agency said that Boeing had not
given access to employees working on the airplane.
"Every shift is documented. You know the workers involved
in this particular area; you can get their names, and you can ask for
interviews with those individuals. And you're saying that that hasn't
happened?" Cantwell asked Homendy about
the NTSB's ongoing investigations during the hearing.
“We have gone through emails, we've gone through texts, we've
looked at pictures to begin to get a picture of the date in mid-September, the
two dates in mid-September that we believe the work occurred,” Homendy said.
"We haven't received that information directly from Boeing. We also
believe we know what shift it occurred on. But we still, there is one team that
deals with the doors of 25 people. Why we don't have those names today, two
months later, is really disappointing.”
Cantwell seemed astonished by the reply.
“Well, it's beyond disappointing,” Cantwell said. “We
have an entire economy that depends on people getting this right. And I thought
that the CEO said that they would cooperate to the fullest. So, it seems like
this information is now stymieing your investigation, and it seems that it's
knowable, and that you should at least be able to talk to the individuals
there.”
Cantwell sent a letter Wednesday
to Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun demanding that the company provide
NTSB with the requested information, including documentation of the door plug
removal and reinstallation and the names of the 25 persons assigned to the door
plug team, within 48 hours.
“Please provide this investigative information to the
NTSB within the next 48 hours so they can conduct their
investigation,” wrote Cantwell to Calhoun. “If complying with this
demand is not possible for some reason, please provide me with a thorough
explanation of why not within the same time period. We cannot delay the
important work of federal safety investigators."
Homendy testified that Boeing seemed to be “stonewalling”
the investigation.
Last month, the NTSB released a preliminary
report that found four bolts needed to secure the door plug on the Boeing
737 MAX-9 were missing before the aircraft was delivered to the airline.
Just this week, the Federal Aviation
Administration gave an audit update and found multiple instances where the
companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control
requirements. That includes Spirit AeroSystems, which does subcontracting work
for Boeing.
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