As federal investigators and regulators at the Federal Aviation Administration continue probing the cause of the near-disaster aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, the story just keeps getting worse for Boeing, the manufacturer of the 737 MAX 9 that lost its door plug while climbing out of Portland.
The latest revelation is especially damning: the plane that sparked a new round of questions over Boeing's ability to ensure its jets' safety left the factory without the door plug bolts installed. They weren't just loose — as door plug bolts on other aircraft were found to be upon mandatory post-incident inspections — they weren't there.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the bolts on the jet operating Alaska 1282 "appear to have been missing when the plane left Boeing's factory" after "the plane maker's employees failed to put back the bolts when they reinstalled a 737 MAX 9 plug door after opening or removing it during production."
This latest and "increasingly likely scenario" is "based partly on an apparent absence of markings on the Alaska door plug itself that would suggest bolts were in place when it blew off the jet around 16,000 feet over Oregon on Jan. 5," according to WSJ sources.
The door plug itself was found by a teacher in his Cedar Hills, Oregon, yard a few days after it had violently separated from the rest of the fuselage. In addition to the lack of physical indications on the door plug, WSJ cited "paperwork and process lapses at Boeing's Renton, Wash., factory related to the company's work on the plug door."
Bolts needed to secure part of an Alaska Airlines jet that blew off in midair appear to have been missing when the plane left Boeing’s factory https://t.co/H6KPYUzbrn https://t.co/H6KPYUzbrn
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) January 29, 2024
As Townhall reported previously, FAA scrutiny of Boeing includes investigating whether the manufacturer "failed to ensure completed products conformed to its approved design and were in a condition for safe operation in compliance with FAA regulations" and a decision to "immediately increase its oversight of Boeing production and manufacturing."
If, as the evidence points, Boeing sent the 737 MAX 9 into service with Alaska entirely missing the bolts needed to keep the door plug in place, it seems there's a lot more oversight necessary to ensure the bare minimum of quality control is achieved on the assembly line.
On Friday, the first Alaska Airlines' Boeing 737 MAX 9 again took to the skies as the company's fleet completes mandated safety inspections.