KUALA LUMPUR: The Boeing Company (Boeing) has apologised to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for sharing of information to the media on the door plug incident involving Alaska Airlines' B737 MAX-9 aircraft.
A Boeing spokesperson told Business Times that the company has held the media briefing with the intention to make clear of its responsibility in the accident and explain the safety and quality actions that it is taking following the January event.
"As we continue to take responsibility and work transparently, we conducted an in-depth briefing on our safety and quality plan and shared context on the lessons we have learned from the Jan 5 accident."
"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 apologise to the NTSB and stand ready to answer any questions as the agency continues its investigation," Boeing said when contacted today.
Earlier today, the NTSB sanctioned Boeing for revealing details of the B737 MAX-9 investigation to the media and speculating about possible causes of the Jan 5 door-plug blowout.
The US investigating agency said a Boeing executive provided investigative information and gave an analysis of factual information that was previously released, which violated NTSB investigative regulations and Boeing's signed party agreement with the NTSB.
"Both of these actions are prohibited by the party agreement that Boeing signed when it was offered party status by the NTSB at the start of the investigation.
"As a party to many NTSB investigations over the past decades, few entities know the rules better than Boeing," the NSTB said in a statement.
The agency added that Boeing will lose its access to the investigative information that it produces and it will also subpoena the aircraft manufacturer to appear at an investigative hearing into the case for Aug 6-7 in Washington D.C.
"Unlike the other parties in the hearing, Boeing will not be allowed to ask questions of other participants," the NTSB said, adding that it will be coordinating with the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) fraud division on Boeing's recent move to share the information to the media.
On Tuesday, Boeing held a media briefing at its production facility in Renton where it assembles the single-aisle 737 family aircraft.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes senior vice president of quality, Elizabeth Lund had shared that the company believes that missing paperwork is the cause of the Jan 5 incident.
She said without the paperwork, no one was aware that the four bolts needed to hold the door plug of the aircraft in place were not installed before the B737 MAX-9 aircraft left Boeing's assembly line to be delivered to its customer, Alaska Airlines in October last year.
"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," she told reporters at the media briefing.
Lund also said that a defect had arrived to Boeing's factory in Renton from its supplier, Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc, which led the company's workers to open the door plug when they discovered five non-confirming rivets on the aircraft.
The removal of a door plug after a plane arrives from its supplier Spirit AeroSystems rarely happens, she said.
"We believe the (door) plug was opened without the correct paperwork," Lund said as she explained that Boeing employees, known as the 'move crew' who opened and reclosed the door plug, were not at fault.
She added that the move crew did not reinstall the bolts as it is not part of their work scope and they only depended on the existing paperwork.
During the press briefing, Lund said Boeing had told the NTSB it cannot identify the individuals who failed to do the work.
"We believe that there was lack of documentation of that paperwork. We know the plug was opened and the paperwork is not there. What we've done is (to) focus deeply on ensuring that we close that gap and leave the who to the NTSB investigation," she added.
On Jan 5 this year, an Alaska Airlines B737 MAX-9 aircraft had to make an emergency landing minutes after taking off from Portland, Oregon after its door plug blew out and left a gaping hole in the side of the narrow-body plane.
The crew managed to land the plane safely and no one onboard was injured.
The NTSB said Boeing had provided a transcript of the media briefing to the agency.
It said the transcript revealed that that the aircraft manufacturer had provided non-public investigative information to the media that NTSB had not verified or authorised for release.
"In addition, Boeing offered opinions and analysis on factors it suggested were causal to the accident."
"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," the NTSB said.