Boeing drew fresh criticism from a federal regulator on Thursday following revelations about the ongoing investigation into a harrowing January flight in which one of the company’s 737 Max planes lost a panel, exposing the passengers to howling winds at an altitude of approximately 16,000 feet.
Speaking to reporters at a company factory in Renton, Washington, Elizabeth Lund, a Boeing executive, provided new details Tuesday about how the plane involved in the incident left the factory apparently unharmed. four critical bolts that secured the panel, known as the door stopper. , in place.
Boeing said the information would not be released until Thursday morning, under a joint agreement that gave journalists in attendance time to process the detailed briefing.
But on Thursday, the National Transportation Safety Board reprimanded the company for sharing investigative information and speculating about the cause of the incident, saying Boeing had “blatantly violated” the agency’s rules regarding investigations active. The agency said it would provide details of the violation to the Justice Department, which is investigating the January theft.
“As a party to numerous NTSB investigations over the past several decades, few entities know the rules better than Boeing,” the agency said in a statement.
The NTSB also said it would revoke Boeing’s access to the agency’s investigative information and that the company would not be allowed to ask questions of other participants at a hearing in August. The agency said it confirmed Boeing’s violation after obtaining a transcript of the press briefing.
Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the NTSB criticism.
The January incident on an Alaska Airlines flight did not cause serious injuries, but it raised new concerns about the quality of Boeing’s planes, more than five years after two fatal accidents involving the Max. In response, Boeing announced changes aimed at improving quality and safety, including expanding training, simplifying plans and procedures, and reducing supplier defects.
Boeing held Tuesday’s briefing, followed by a tour of the factory, to show progress made so far in improving quality. Ms. Lund also offered new details about the events leading up to the incident.
When the body of the plane involved in the January flight arrived at the Boeing factory in the summer of 2023, five rivets did not meet specifications. As the plane passed through the factory, Boeing and Spirit discussed how to resolve the problem, Ms. Lund said at this week’s briefing. By the time they decided the rivets needed to be replaced, work on the plane was almost complete.
The panel was removed to secure nearby rivets, but no one documented this removal. Later, a team known as the “removal team” prepared the plane to be brought outside, closing the panel, she said. It was not that team’s responsibility to replace the bolts that secured the door and the lack of documentation meant no one else knew how to replace the bolts, Ms Lund added.
The panel, which perfectly fit the space it covered, survived approximately 500 flight hours before exploding on the Alaska Airlines flight.
Asked by a reporter about the individuals involved, Ms. Lund responded that “that “is absolutely the responsibility of the NTSB” and declined to comment further. The agency disputed that characterization, saying it was “focused on the probable cause of the accident, without assigning blame to anyone or assessing liability.” This approach is crucial to such investigations because it encourages people with information to come forward without undue fear of reprisal.
The January incident is another blow to Boeing’s reputation after two Max 8 plane crashes in 2018 and 2019, in which 346 people died. The accidents led to a global ban on the Max that lasted about 20 months; the plane began flying again at the end of 2020.
For years after the crashes, Boeing executives assured regulators, airlines and the public that it had made sweeping changes to improve the quality and safety of its planes. But the January incident — and accounts from current and former employees of shoddy work and poor management decisions, as reported by the New York Times and others — suggest that changes to the era had not gone far enough.
One of the biggest changes Boeing has made since January has been to require 737 Max plane bodies to pass a more rigorous inspection before being shipped to Renton, near Seattle, for final assembly. The body is made in Wichita, Kansas, by Spirit AeroSystems, a supplier Boeing is expected to acquire soon.
The change took effect a few months ago and has resulted in a significant decrease in major defects that need to be repaired at the Boeing factory, said Ms. Lund, senior vice president of quality for Boeing’s commercial aircraft division. . Supplier inspections also allowed Boeing to build the Max more quickly once the bodies arrived at its factory.
The company is also producing fewer planes than expected because the Federal Aviation Administration, its main regulator, limited its production rate after the January flight.
“We’ve increased our presence at the supplier, we make sure the parts are perfect where they’re shipped, we inspect them there, they rework them there, and then we ship the parts,” Ms. Lund said. “The benefits have been truly enormous. »
Ms. Lund said the previous Max crisis forced Boeing to reform its engineering practices, but the most recent incident required improvements to the production process.
“When this accident happened, it gave us an opportunity to look at another area,” she said.
Other improvements the company has made, Ms. Lund said, include increased training of new recruits before they begin working on planes and expanded on-the-job training. The company dispatched more than 160 workplace coaches, including veteran and retired mechanics, to help new workers get up to speed.
The company is also accelerating its efforts to simplify a range of plans and procedures, Ms. Lund said. Boeing has increased inspections and internal monitoring and placed a renewed emphasis on encouraging workers to voice concerns, collecting thousands of new comments and recommendations on quality improvements.
Boeing is also working to reduce work done out of order, known as work on the move, which can increase the risk of errors and cause other problems. The company said it had imposed stricter requirements that had to be met before planes could move forward on the production line. That and other changes have helped the company reduce the amount of business travel by more than 50 percent, Ms. Lund said.