The National Transportation Safety Board hasn’t received all the documents and information it has sought from Boeing since the dramatic incident, agency Chair Jennifer Homendy told lawmakers Wednesday. 

“It’s absurd that two months later we don’t have that,” Homendy told the Senate Commerce Committee.

The criticism runs counter to pledges of transparency by the US planemaker, which faces multiple probes and scrutiny from regulators, lawmakers and customers in response to the accident on an Alaska Airlines flight. Boeing and its chief executive officer, Dave Calhoun, have repeatedly vowed full cooperation with investigators at the NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration. 

Boeing representatives didn’t immediately comment on Homendy’s testimony. 

The safety board also has voted to hold an investigative hearing on safety issues raised by the accident, spokesman Eric Weiss said after the Senate session. Such a hearing could also heighten the focus on the planemaker’s actions.

The NTSB said on Feb. 6 that forensic evidence and photos of work on the nearly new plane showed four bolts meant to hold a fuselage panel in place hadn’t been installed on the Max 9. 

The Alaska Airlines jet suffered an explosive decompression above Portland, Oregon, after the panel, or door plug, covering an unused emergency exit, flew off midflight. 

NTSB investigators haven’t been able to determine what led to the manufacturing lapse or other details of the work, Homendy said Wednesday.

The NTSB also learned recently that three people who worked on the plane were not employees of Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. and instead worked for contractors, Homendy said.

Days after the accident, Calhoun addressed Boeing employees and said the company would approach the NTSB and FAA investigations “with 100% complete transparency every step of the way.” He has also vowed to change Boeing’s practices to bolster its safety culture.

Shares of the US planemaker rose 0.4% as of 1:11 p.m. in New York. They have declined 23% this year, the worst performance in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Employee Interviews

Homendy said investigators believe a team of 25 Boeing workers were assigned to 737 doors, but the company hasn’t provided their names and the safety board hasn’t been able to interview them. 

“We’ve asked repeatedly for that information,” Homendy said. “It’s not for lack of trying.” 

In addition, the agency hasn’t been able to obtain documentation from Boeing showing how the work was performed, she said. The company has told investigators they can’t find it, she said.

That information is consistent with earlier reports that Boeing workers used two record-keeping systems to track work and that may have led to confusion over how it was performed. 

Using emails, texts and other information it has obtained, the NTSB believes the work on the 737 door panel occurred in mid-September. But investigators have yet to obtain more specific information, Homendy said. 

An NTSB team is at the Renton, Washington, factory where the plane was built to conduct additional interviews this week, she said. A manager on the team that they believe performed the work has been out of work on medical leave, she said.  

Senator Maria Cantwell, the Washington Democrat who is chairwoman of the committee, said Boeing’s lack of cooperation is “beyond disappointing.” 

“I thought that the CEO said that they would cooperate to the fullest,” Cantwell said. “So, it seems like this information is now stymieing your investigation, and it seems that it’s knowable, and that you should at least be able to talk to the individuals there.”

Homendy also clarified that initial reports that bolts on other 737 Max planes weren’t properly tightened were not related to the failure on the Alaska Airlines plane. FAA officials told the NTSB that they involved other nearby bolts, but not the ones that allowed the door panel to fail, she said. 

She also confirmed that forensic evidence on the door panel, which was recovered days after the incident, showed it had been moving on flights before it failed.

The US Justice Department is scrutinizing the incident, which could expose the company to criminal prosecution, Bloomberg reported Feb. 29. 

The FAA is also investigating whether Boeing failed to comply with requirements that planes leaving their factories conform strictly to agency-approved designs. The agency has also bolstered its oversight of Boeing’s assembly lines, and barred the planemaker from increasing production rates until it’s satisfied that quality practices have improved. 

–With assistance from Julie Johnsson and Lillianna Byington.

(Updates with additional comments from third paragraph.)

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

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Published: 07 Mar 2024, 01:27 AM IST