US safety board to hold hearings on Boeing 737 MAX door incident

4:28 pm Wednesday, July 17th, 2024

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The National Transportation Safety Board said on Wednesday it had scheduled 20 hours of hearings over two days on the January Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 in-flight door plug emergency and would review oversight by U.S. safety regulators.

The NTSB said on its website the Aug. 6-7 hearings are set to last 10 hours each day and would focus on Boeing 737 MAX manufacturing and inspections, FAA oversight of Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems and events surrounding the removal of the door plug in 2023. The hearing would also review safety management and quality management systems.

Boeing has faced mounting questions after a door panel detached during a Jan. 5 flight on a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9, forcing pilots to make an emergency landing while passengers were exposed to a gaping hole 16,000 feet above the ground. The FAA had grounded all MAX 9 airplanes for several weeks and required safety checks before they could resume flights. The agency also has barred Boeing from expanding MAX production as the agency reviews the planemaker’s practices.

The NTSB said previously that four key bolts were missing from the door plug that blew off the Alaska Airlines flight at 16,000 feet. The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into the incident.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told Reuters in April she expected witnesses from Alaska, Boeing and Spirit would provide testimony.

The FAA and Boeing referred questions about the hearing to the NTSB. Last month, the NTSB said Boeing could lose its status as a party to the probe after it violated rules by providing non-public information to media and speculating about possible causes.

The NTSB said Boeing would no longer see information produced during its probe and unlike other parties, Boeing would not be allowed to ask questions of other participants at the August hearing.

Elizabeth Lund, Boeing’s senior vice president of quality, who had made remarks last month that violated the rules is expected to appear at the hearing, the NTSB said last month.

The NTSB said last month it would subpoena Boeing witnesses to appear at the hearing. The NTSB said Wednesday the full investigation will take approximately one year to 18 months from the accident to complete.

(Reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by Chris Reese and Diane Craft)