Beijing, August 8 (Xinhua) -- Boeing executives attended a hearing at the National Transportation Safety Board on August 6 to provide testimony on the incident of a Boeing 737 MAX passenger plane door jam falling off in mid air that occurred in January this year. However, Boeing reiterated that there are "no" relevant written records regarding the dismantling and installation of the door plug, which is crucial for the accident investigation. The personnel responsible for dismantling and installing the door plug, as well as the time of its return to the aircraft, cannot be determined.
The above-mentioned hearing will last for two days and end on the 7th. Jennifer Homendi, the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board of the United States, said that the door blockage air detachment accident that occurred on January 5th on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft operated by Alaska Airlines has caused enormous mental trauma to the crew and passengers. This hearing should focus on the unresolved issues and Boeing's operations before the accident, rather than the measures taken afterwards.
Homendi said, "This is not a public relations event for Boeing. What I want to know, what we want to know, is what happened before January 5th
Boeing, as a globally renowned aircraft manufacturer, has experienced a series of quality and safety scandals in recent years. The passenger plane door stopper detachment accident that occurred on January 5th did not cause any casualties, but exposed Boeing's ongoing quality control issues. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration of the United States have launched an investigation into this matter. In October 2018 and March 2019, there were two air crashes involving Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft that resulted in a total of 346 fatalities.
In the accident on January 5th, the door stopper of the passenger plane suddenly fell off, resulting in a large hole in the fuselage, and many items fell through it, causing chaos on the plane.
According to a preliminary investigation report released by the National Transportation Safety Board in February, the aircraft involved in the accident was found to have substandard rivets on its fuselage during assembly at Boeing's factory in Renton, Washington in September of last year. The door plugs had to be removed for repairs. After the repair was completed, the four bolts used to secure the door plug were not reinstalled. The committee had requested the document records of this assignment from Boeing, but Boeing stated that they could not find them.
John Lovell, the investigator in charge of the investigation into the accident by the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a hearing on August 6 that the evidence obtained by the investigators showed that the bolts used to secure the door plugs on the fuselage of the accident aircraft were present when it was transported from supplier Bentley Systems to Boeing's Renton factory on August 31, 2023. Prior to the delivery of the aircraft to Alaska Airlines, Boeing staff conducted operations on the fuselage on September 18-19, 2023. This operation is necessary as Boeing staff have determined that the rivets on the fuselage do not meet the standards.
Lovell said that the rivet adjustment will be completed by the staff at the Renton factory. According to the testimony provided by the executives of Yibingrui, although the staff of Yibingrui completed the work on the rivets, they did not have authorization to dismantle and reinstall the door plugs and would not do so.
Elizabeth Lund, Boeing's senior vice president in charge of commercial aircraft quality affairs, said at the hearing that Boeing staff dismantled door plugs to complete rivet operations, but did not make a written record of this. Therefore, there is no written record of when the door stopper was installed back into the body. Although the main way to identify the cause of the problem with the aircraft should be through written records, we do not believe that such records exist in this door stopper detachment accident.
Lund said that Boeing is still studying and adjusting the design plan to ensure that the door stopper is firmly fixed in the future.
According to an investigation document released by the National Transportation Safety Board on the 6th, a Boeing worker involved in Boeing aircraft door installation operations said that Boeing did not provide specialized training on door plugs, and workers should not have been required to dismantle or reinstall door plugs. Another worker said that the workers at the Renton factory were put in a difficult situation by Boeing, and Boeing's so-called safety culture is' garbage, no one is responsible '.