The National Transportation Safety Board have placed restrictions on US planemaker, Boeing, for disclosing details of the probe into the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX incident to the media during a press briefing, and speculating about possible causes.
The release of this information, the Board said, was in direct violation of its investigative regulations, and of its party agreement status, first signed when Boeing was offered party status at the start of the plug door blowout investigation.
In a scathing public statement, the NTSB said: “As a party to many NTSB investigations over the past decades, few entities know the rules better than Boeing.”
As a result of this incident, the agency said that Boeing would retain its party status, but no longer have access to investigative information the NTSB produces. It also said that it would subpoena company witnesses to appear at an investigative hearing, scheduled for August 6 and 7 2024. Boeing will not be able to ask questions of participants at this hearing.
It also said that the NTSB would be coordinating with the DOJ Fraud Division to give details about Boeing’s unauthorised information releases on the 737 MAX 9 door plug investigation.
What statements were made?
As reported by Reuters, in a letter addressed to Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun from Timothy J. LeBaron, Office of Aviation Safety Director, it was revealed that Elizabeth Lund, Senior Vice President Quality for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, was the executive who gave this “long-planned” briefing, ahead of the July 22 Farnborough Airshow, inside its Renton, Washington factory.
According to The Air Current, this media event was one that the NTSB had not been notified of in advance. Until the agency’s adoption of the final report, only appropriate NTSB staff are authorised to publicly disclose information
Via a transcript given to the NTSB, and as reported by CNN, Lund had discussed how the plane had left the plant without four critical bolts securing the plug door in place – blaming the lack of paperwork for this error. “The fact that one employee could not fill out one piece of paperwork in this condition and could result in an accident was shocking to all of us,” CNN reported Lund as saying.
Whilst this lack of paperwork is not new information, as the NTSB disclosed this fact to the US Senate Commerce Committee in March 2024 – picked up by various news sources – Boeing’s discussion of it with journalists in June 2024 was a “blatant” violation of the investigation.
“In the briefing, Boeing portrayed the NTSB investigation as a search to locate the individual responsible for the door plug work. The NTSB is instead focused on the probable cause of the accident, not placing blame on any individual or assessing liability,” NTSB’s statement further added.
In the letter, LeBaron also expressed anger and dismay from the agency at the statements of Boeing’s Chief Engineer, Howard McKenzie, concerning the Southwest Airlines 737 MAX 8 Dutch roll incident, on June 18 2024, who said that the event “has nothing to do with design or manufacturing.”
“The NTSB has not made any such determination, and our investigators have not yet ruled out design or manufacturing issues as contributing to this event,” LeBaron said.
Any further infractions, LeBaron warned Calhoun, could lead to the loss of Boeing’s party status in the investigation.
In a follow-up statement made to journalists, 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. We apologize to the NTSB and stand ready to answer any questions as the agency continues its investigation.”
Investigations continue into the plug door 737 MAX 9 incident, but this sanction by the NTSB is yet another crippling setback for the US manufacturer trying to clear its reputation.
