Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems under NTSB investigation for 737 Max 9 incident. (In frame Spirit Aerosystem logo/ Yahoo Finance)
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced that several Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems executives will testify at a two-day hearing starting Tuesday regarding the mid-air blowout of an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 door plug in January.
Among those testifying are Boeing's senior vice president for quality, Elizabeth Lund, and Doug Ackerman, vice president of supplier quality at Boeing. From Spirit AeroSystems, Terry George, senior vice president and general manager for Boeing Programs, and Scott Grabon, senior director for 737 quality, will also appear. Spirit AeroSystems is responsible for manufacturing the fuselage for the MAX.
In July, Boeing agreed to repurchase Spirit AeroSystems, a company it had spun off in 2005, for $4.7 billion in stock. Meanwhile, Airbus plans to acquire some of Spirit's struggling Europe-focused operations.
Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will also testify at the hearing, which is expected to last 20 hours over two days. The hearing will investigate issues related to the 737's manufacturing and inspection processes, safety and quality management systems, FAA oversight, and the circumstances around the door plug's failure, which involved four missing bolts.
Boeing has acknowledged that there is no paperwork documenting the removal of these bolts. Both Boeing and the FAA have not commented on the matter, while a Spirit AeroSystems spokesperson stated that the company is "fully committed to cooperating with the NTSB in its investigation into this incident."
In January, the FAA restricted Boeing from increasing 737 production. By June, FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker admitted that the agency had been "too hands off" in its oversight of Boeing prior to January. That same month, the NTSB accused Boeing of violating investigation protocols by sharing non-public information with the media and speculating on potential causes of the incident. The NTSB criticized comments made by Lund to the media as "either inaccurate or unknown to the NTSB" and noted that some information had not been previously disclosed.
As a result, the NTSB has decided that Boeing will no longer have access to information produced during the investigation and will not be permitted to question other participants during the hearing, a privilege other parties will retain.
Additionally, in July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge and pay a $243.6 million fine to settle a U.S. Justice Department investigation related to two fatal 737 MAX crashes.
