Boeing’s Baffling Admission Of Quality Meltdown In Reply To NTSB Chief

PORTLAND, OREGON – JANUARY 7: In this National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) handout, an … [+] opening is seen in the fuselage of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Boeing 737-9 MAX on January 7, 2024 in Portland, Oregon. A door-sized section near the rear of the Boeing 737-9 MAX plane blew off 10 minutes after Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 took off from Portland, Oregon on January 5 on its way to Ontario, California. (Photo by NTSB via Getty Images)

Getty Images

Boeing BA has raised more troubling questions while responding to the National Transportation Safety Board Chair’s comments about the Alaska Airlines ALK investigation to a Senate Committee on Wednesday.

The aircraft manufacturer stated it may lack documentation of the critical work performed on the edge frame forward of the door plug, which detached from the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9.

The company’s statement could be construed as a tacit admission that it may not have complied with the regulatory requirement for record-keeping to certify aircraft as airworthy.

Boeing’s Missing Bolts, Employees, And Documentation

PORTLAND, OREGON – JANUARY 7: In this National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) handout, NTSB … [+] Investigator-in-Charge John Lovell examines the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Boeing 737-9 MAX on January 7, 2024 in Portland, Oregon. A door-sized section near the rear of the Boeing 737-9 MAX plane blew off 10 minutes after Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 took off from Portland, Oregon on January 5 on its way to Ontario, California. (Photo by NTSB via Getty Images)

Getty Images

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told a Senate Committee that Boeing had failed to disclose a complete list of employees who worked on door assemblies at the Boeing facility in Renton, Washington. These employees may have information on why the bolts were missing on the mid-exit door plug of the Alaska 737 MAX plane. NTSB investigators are interviewing staff to determine what happened to the bolts in place before repair work involving five damaged rivets on the edge frame.

Boeing photos taken to document the non-conforming parts report on the aircraft’s fuselage, included in the NTSB’s preliminary report on the incident, show the missing restraining bolts were in place before the repair work.

The NTSB investigation found that “to perform the replacement of the damaged rivets, access to the rivets required opening the left MED plug.” The NTSB report added, “to open the MED plug, the two vertical movement arrestor bolts and two upper guide track bolts had to be removed.”

The NTSB report shows a photo, supplied by Spirit AeroSystems SPR , documenting the repair work on the rivets, which showed the door plug was open. However, the report stated: “The investigation continues to determine what manufacturing documents were used to authorize the opening and closing of the left MED plug during the rivet rework.”

Work records should be on hand to present to auditors and investigators as needed per regulatory requirements.

However, Homendy told the Senate Committee that Boeing has yet to provide documentation on the repair job performed. “It is absurd that two months later we don’t have it,” she said.

Boeing first argued Homendy’s testimony to the Committee, saying it had provided the NTSB with some of the names of employees who may have relevant information.

Reuters reported that Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell had sent a letter to Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, giving the company 48 hours to comply with the NTSB’s request for information.

Shortly after, Boeing complied with the original requirement, sending the NTSB a complete employee list.

Boeing did not explain its delay in disclosing the employee list and issued a baffling follow-on statement that “if the door plug removal was undocumented there would be no documentation to share.”

No Room For “Undocumented” Work In Aviation

A person walks past an unpainted Boeing 737-8 MAX parked at Renton Municipal Airport adjacent to … [+] Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington on January 25, 2024. Alaska Airlines said Thursday it expects a $150 million hit from the Boeing 737 MAX grounding, which will limit its capacity growth in 2024. The airline, which executed an emergency landing on a MAX on January 5 following the mid-flight blowout of a panel on the jet, disclosed the estimates in a securities filing, saying capacity growth will be “at or below the lower end” of its prior estimate. (Photo by Jason Redmond / AFP) (Photo by JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

Aviation manufacturing requirements do not allow for “undocumented” work. To ensure the safety and integrity of aviation products, regulators require documentation of work performed in manufacturing and repairs. Any work performed to repair the non-conforming damaged rivets on the 737 MAX 9 edge frame should have been recorded.

Records should list the specific employee who performed the work and the tasks performed. Boeing quality control would also need to confirm in the record that the repair work was inspected and the fault was resolved.

A gap in documentation would put the aircraft’s airworthiness in doubt. By failing to provide these records and stating that they may not exist, Boeing effectively acknowledges that it has violated essential aviation safety practices.

As Homendy told the Senate Committee, “Without that information, that raises concerns about quality assurance, quality management, safety management systems.”

Boeing’s Failure To Comply

On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced it had completed its six-week audit of Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, following the Alaska Airlines incident. The FAA “found multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.”

When the FAA notified Boeing of the audit in January, it listed two relevant requirements, including Boeing’s regulatory responsibility to “ensure that each completed product or article for which a production certificate has been issued … presented for airworthiness certification or approval conforms to its approved design and is in a condition for safe operation.”

Furthermore, the FAA referenced Boeing’s quality manual, which states, “Appropriate inspection and test activities are conducted … post-delivery activities are conducted in accordance with contract or regulatory requirements.”

The FAA alleged that despite these requirements, “Boeing may have failed to ensure its completed products conformed to its approved design and were in a condition for safe operation in accordance with quality system inspection and test procedures.”

Boeing’s disconcerting statement on Wednesday would seem to confirm these allegations.

In responding to Homendy’s testimony to the Committee, Boeing added, “We will continue to cooperate fully and transparently with the NTSB’s investigation.”

Homendy told the Senate Committee, “What I’m saying is we’ve requested the information. We don’t have the information.”