The National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Jennifer
Homendy told the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday that Boeing had not
provided crucial information needed to fully conduct the investigation into the
Jan.
5 blow-out of a door plug on a Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft.
Homendy said that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
has been cooperative, but that Boeing “has not provided us with the
documents and information that we have requested numerous times over the past
few months, specifically with respect to opening, closing and removal of the
door, and the team that does that work at the Renton facility.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) asked that “even two months
later you still do not know who actually opened the door plug?”
“That’s correct, Senator, we don’t know, and it’s not
for lack of trying,” Homendy responded, adding that the investigation team
knows there is a manager and 25 other individuals who deal with the doors in
the Renton, Wash., facility. NTSB could not interview the manager because that
person has been on medical leave.
“We’ve asked for the names of the other 25 people and
have not received the names,” Homendy said. “We asked for the records
with respect to what occurred. We’ve asked for what shift it occurred on. …
It’s absurd that two months later we don’t have that.”
At that point, Cruz requested that the NTSB respond in
writing one week from March 6 whether or not Boeing has cooperated, “and I
expect you to have that list of 25 names,” he said.
The committee chairperson Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) asked
if the NTSB was able to get from Boeing what specific procedures they have for
“identifying, storing, protecting, retrieving and retaining quality
records. Were they forthcoming on that?” she asked.
Homendy responded that “we have not received that
information.”
We’ve asked for the names of the other 25 people and have not received the names. … We asked for the records with respect to what occurred. We’ve asked for what shift it occurred on. … It’s absurd that two months later we don’t have that.”
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy
Later Wednesday afternoon, Boeing released a statement that
said it now had provided the NTSB with the “full list of individuals on
the 737 door team.”
Boeing added that “with respect to documentation, if
the door plug removal was undocumented there would be no documentation to
share. We will continue to cooperate fully and transparently with the NTSB’s
investigation.”
Homendy added that the NTSB also was investigating the
Spirit AeroSystems employees who did work on the rivets, but they don’t know
who did the work on the door plug. Spirit AeroSystems manufactured the
fuselage. Further, the NTSB learned that three of the Spirit AeroSystems
employees aren’t employees but are contractors, from “three different
entities,” Homendy said. “That information was told to us through the
individuals who were being interviewed that contacted us directly. … We have
engaged our attorney on this matter.”
Cruz said, “that is utterly unacceptable.”
On
Monday, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration found in its audit of the
Jan. 5 incident “multiple instances” where Boeing and Spirit
AeroSystems “allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality-control
requirements.”
After a Feb. 27 meeting, FAA administrator Mike Whitaker
told Boeing CEO David Calhoun the company had 90 days to come up with an
outline for its action plan to fix systemic quality-control issues.
