The Senior Vice President of Boeing Could Not Provide Key Answers at the Accident Investigation Hearing

Executives of the US aerospace company Boeing attended a hearing of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the United States on August 6 and 7, and were questioned about incidents including the mid-air door plug detachment of a Boeing 737 MAX passenger aircraft that occurred in January 2024. When answering key questions, the responses of the Boeing executives were ambiguous and evasive.

Elizabeth Lund, Senior Vice President for Quality Affairs of Commercial Aircraft at Boeing: We promise that similar situations will not happen again. We will continue to work in these areas to restore public and the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) confidence (in Boeing).

Todd Inman, Member of the National Transportation Safety Board: May I make a suggestion? Stop thinking about pursuing efficiency all the time and talk about safer production and manufacturing.

Elizabeth Lund, Senior Vice President for Quality Affairs of Commercial Aircraft at Boeing: OK.

On January 5, 2024, a 737 MAX passenger aircraft of Alaska Airlines in the US had a door plug detachment during flight, causing chaos on the plane and forcing an emergency landing. According to the preliminary investigation report released by the NTSB in February, when the involved passenger aircraft was assembled at Boeing's factory in Renton, Washington State last September, non-compliant fuselage rivets were found and the door plug had to be dismantled for maintenance. After the maintenance was completed, four bolts used to fix the door plug were not reinstalled. The board had requested the documentation of this operation from Boeing, but Boeing said it "could not be found".

According to the investigation documents released by the NTSB on August 6, a Boeing worker said that Boeing did not provide specialized training on the door plug. Another worker said that the so-called corporate "safety culture" at Boeing is very bad and no one is truly responsible.