The American manufacturer Boeing has indicated to the American Transportation Safety Agency (NTSB), which is investigating the incident which occurred on an Alaska Airlines plane in January, that it does not have documentation on the work carried out on the cap door incriminated, said the boss of this organization. “To this day, we still do not know who carried out the work to open, reinstall and close the cap door on the accident plane,” explains Jennifer Homendy, in a letter addressed to Maria Cantwell, president of the Senate Committee on Commerce and Transport.
During testimony before this committee on March 6, Ms. Homendy deplored that Boeing was not cooperative enough in this investigation. “Boeing has not provided the documents and information that we have requested on several occasions over the past two months,” she said. Ms Cantwell had asked him to keep the Commission informed a week after his testimony. “Boeing has informed us that it is unable to find documentation listing these operations,” Ms. Homendy wrote Wednesday.
“The absence of this documentation will complicate the progress of the investigation”
“Our investigators verbally requested the videos from the surveillance cameras” to identify the people who intervened on this equipment, which detached itself from the cabin in flight, “but they were informed that the videos had been deleted” by d “other recordings,” she continues. According to her, “the absence of this documentation will complicate the progress of the investigation”. She confirmed that the team leader was identified shortly after the incident but was on sick leave.
When asked about the evolution of his condition, investigators were informed by his lawyer that he was not able to provide a statement or be questioned, she adds, specifying that Boeing had “transmitted the name of people ‘likely’ to provide information” on the operations carried out on the cork holder in September 2023.
The aircraft was delivered in October and entered into service the following month. It was only after its March 6 hearing that the NTSB obtained a list of all employees who worked at that time, without identifying those who worked the cork door. Dave Calhoun, boss of Boeing, told Ms. Homendy “that he was unable to provide this information and maintained that Boeing did not have documentation of the work carried out.” According to her, it is a question of determining the aircraft manufacturer’s quality and safety procedures, “not of punishing” the people involved.
The NTSB’s preliminary report, released Feb. 6, determined that four bolts that were supposed to secure the cap holder were missing. The Agency has scheduled investigative hearings for August 6 and 7 to obtain the information necessary to shed light on this incident.