Missing Paperwork Pointed As Culprit in Boeing Door Plug Incident on Alaska Airlines Flight

Missing paperwork has prevented investigators from discovering how a door plug blew off on an Alaska Airlines flight in January. This week, Boeing disclosed that the same missing paperwork is also the likely reason for the incident. 

No documentation was found on who worked on the door plug that blew off midflight at 16,000 feet. During a briefing in Renton, Washington, Boeing claimed that missing paperwork caused four missing bolts on the door plug. Workers missed the work order that should have alerted them to the required work.

Missing Paperwork and Safety Issues

On Tuesday, Boeing disclosed that the door plug wasn’t secured, likely due to divided responsibilities between two employee groups. One was in charge of removing, and the other was in charge of reinstalling the door plug. 

The first group disassembled the door plug to address the rivets. But with no paperwork indicating the door plug was removed and should have had four bolts necessary to secure it, it became a problem when the second group of employees worked on the plane.

Boeing’s Senior Vice President of quality for commercial planes, Elizabeth Lund, said that no one on the assembly line was aware the door plug had been removed or that its bolts were missing.

Lund said, “(Permanent) reinstallation is done by another team based on the paperwork showing what jobs are unfinished.” She also added, “But there was no paperwork, so nobody knew to follow up.”

Disclosing Non-Public Investigative Information

By divulging this information, Boeing finds itself in hot waters once again. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) criticized Boeing for disclosing “non-public investigative information,” saying that it violated the agency’s rules. 

The NTSB said, “During a media briefing Tuesday about quality improvements… a Boeing executive provided investigative information and gave an analysis of factual information previously released. Both of these actions are prohibited.”

After Boeing divulged this information, the NTSB barred Boeing from accessing further information generated during the investigation.

NTSB said, “As a party to many NTSB investigations over the past decades, few entities know the rules better than Boeing.”

On Thursday, NTSB Office of Aviation Safety Director Timothy LeBaron sent a letter to Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun saying that Boeing’s media briefing didn’t have NTSB’s consent. LeBaron mentioned that “Such a release or withholding of critical information from our investigators are blatant violations of NTSB’s regulations.”

Boeing responded and took full responsibility for their action. In their statement, Boeing said, “We deeply regret that some of our comments, intended to make clear our responsibility in the accident and explain the actions we are taking, overstepped the NTSB’s role as the source of investigative information.”

In May, Boeing preempted the NTSB’s findings on the Southwest 737 Max flight. Boeing said that the rare, and unsafe back-and-forth-roll wasn’t due to a design or manufacturing error. The NTSB told Boeing that both the agency and the company should have one voice speaking to the public.