Boeing is unable to determine how a 737 Max was delivered to Alaska Airlines without the necessary bolts to secure a door plug, leading to a near tragedy on a flight in January.
The second day of a two-day hearing in Washington by the National Transportation Safety Board focused on the safety management system and quality management systems that have been in place at Boeing.
Elizabeth Lund, senior vice president of quality for Boeing Commercial Airplanes said that it is not clear who and when that door plug was put in place.
The door plug was temporarily removed for repairs at the Boeing factory, but the necessary paperwork was not created, leading to confusion among workers about reinstalling the plugs with the required bolts.
Boeing executives admitted gaps in the safety and quality management systems, with concerns about similar incidents occurring in the future.
Boeing is considering adding cockpit warning lights for door plugs and implementing a tagging system to prevent unauthorized removal and reinstallation.
Testimonies from Boeing employees and former officials highlighted issues with training, pressure for speed, and a chaotic work environment, revealing a company struggling to address safety lapses and quality problems.
Elizabeth Lund said: “the door plug was removed at the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, last September so that problems with some rivets could be repaired. But the necessary paperwork for that temporary door plug removal was apparently never created. So when workers replaced the door plug temporarily, other workers were unaware that bolts needed to be reinstalled.”
James Phoenix, a retired manager of the FAA office that oversaw Boeing said: “Boeing moved to a lean manufacturing model to try to cut costs, and cut inspections as part of that process. A couple of ex-Toyota managers were brought in to build airplanes the way Toyota builds cars. When the FAA demanded that Boeing restore inspections, “they complied with all of that, but slowly, very slowly. That really didn’t change until the Max 9 accidents where it brought a lot of things to light. So you need a lot of leverage to get Boeing to change and then when Boeing changes, it’s very slow and it took a long time for them to really understand that their quality system needed to improve.”
