NTSB officials question witnesses at hearing on Boeing door blowout

Several Spirit AeroSystems and Boeing company officials on Tuesday testified before National Transportation Safety Board officials about their companies’ safety procedures. More experts were also scheduled to testify to the Board on Wednesday, according to the NTSB.

What’s this all about? The scheduled two-day hearing is centered on a January 5 incident in which a door blew off of an Alaska Airlines flight. The Boeing 737-9 Max jet was only a short way into a flight from Portland, Ore. to Ontario, Calif., when the door flew off the plane. The pilot returned the plane to Portland and landed. Eight people aboard suffered minor injuries.

What caused the blowout? To date, the NTSB has not issued an official ruling on what caused the blowout. The NTSB characterized the testimony as a fact-finding step that would help it arrive at an official conclusion about the cause of the incident. Notably, the lead NTSB investigator, John Lovell, said on Tuesday that the door was missing four bolts required to firmly secure it to the fuselage. The NTSB’s preliminary report about the incident also said those four bolts were missing after repairs at a Boeing facility in Renton, Wash., in August 2023.

What did the Boeing and Spirit officials tell the NTSB? The Spirit and Boeing officials told NTSB panel members about company policies, procedures, and training processes. They also discussed their manufacturing processes, as well as the companies’ record-keeping standards, hiring procedures, and oversight of their suppliers. NTSB panel members also questioned Boeing officials about the company’s oversight of Spirit AeroSystems.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift about Boeing appointing a new CEO after several years of turbulence at the company.