NTSB casts blame on Boeing, FAA for 2024 midair blowout

U.S. safety investigators pointed to breakdowns in Boeing Co.’s manufacturing processes as well as poor oversight by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration as key factors that led to a panel blowing off a 737 MAX aircraft shortly after takeoff last year.

The midair blowout in January 2024, which left a gaping hole in the side of the plane operated by Alaska Airlines, didn’t result in any fatalities, but it plunged Boeing into crisis as regulators and policymakers scrutinized quality lapses at the planemaker’s factories. Early on in its investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board found that the door-sized panel, known as a door plug, left Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington, without four bolts meant to keep it in place.

[caption id="attachment_57289863" align="aligncenter" width="594"] Plastic covers the exterior of the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 days after the Jan. 7, 2024, incident. (Courtesy/NTSB via Getty Images/Bloomberg)[/caption] During an NTSB meeting Tuesday to determine the probable cause of the accident, the investigator-in-charge of the probe, Doug Brazy, said there were several safety issues the agency identified connected to Boeing’s manufacturing processes. Among them were poor documentation practices, inadequate worker training and a history of unauthorized removals, similar to the door-plug work that ultimately led to it being reinstalled without the necessary bolts.

But the NTSB also placed blame on Boeing’s regulator, the FAA, whom it said had provided “ineffective oversight” of the manufacturer.

“I have lots of questions about where FAA was during all of this,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at the start of the meeting. “The FAA is the absolute last barrier of defense when it comes to ensuring aviation safety.”

The NTSB session comes as Boeing is yet again in the spotlight after a 787 Dreamliner crashed in India earlier this month. The company had begun emerging from crisis mode after last year’s door plug mishap when the latest accident, which killed 241 passengers and several more on the ground, occurred on June 12. Investigators still haven’t drawn any conclusions on what caused the crash.

FAA oversight The NTSB isn’t the first to question the FAA’s oversight. The U.S. Transportation Department’s office of inspector general said in a report last year that the regulator’s processes for identifying and resolving production issues at Boeing were “not effective.”

The FAA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prior to Tuesday’s NTSB meeting, most of the circumstances leading to the door plug blowout had already come to light. The panel had been removed during the manufacturing process to repair damaged rivets and wasn’t reinstalled correctly, investigators determined shortly after the mishap.

Boeing has said the door plug’s removal wasn’t properly documented. To this date, the identity of the worker or team of workers in the factory that took out the panel hasn’t been established.

Following the accident, the FAA increased its oversight of Boeing and capped production of the 737 Max at thirty-eight planes per month.

Boeing voluntarily slowed down manufacturing last year to address its quality issues but is now nearing output close to the FAA’s limit. The company’s chief executive officer, Kelly Ortberg, has said he’s aiming to have the cap lifted later this year — if the regulator agrees. The planemaker has also said it's making progress on the action plan it submitted to the FAA, detailing steps the company would take to improve its processes and reduce defects on parts coming from a key supplier.