The chairwoman of the Nationwide Transportation Security Board instructed a Senate committee on Wednesday that Boeing was dragging its toes in offering some data to the company because it investigates what prompted a door panel to return off an Alaska Airways airplane throughout a flight in January.
The official, Jennifer Homendy, instructed the Senate Commerce Committee that her company had requested any documentation that exists relating to the opening and shutting of the panel, referred to as a door plug, at Boeing’s manufacturing unit in Renton, Wash. Ms. Homendy stated the protection board had additionally requested the names of sure staff on the manufacturing unit.
Boeing has a group of 25 staff and a supervisor who deal with doorways on the Renton plant, Ms. Homendy instructed the Senate committee. The supervisor has been on medical depart, and the company had been unable to interview that particular person, Ms. Homendy stated. She added that Boeing had not supplied the protection board with the names of the opposite 25 staff.
“It’s absurd that two months later, we don’t have that,” she stated.
Boeing didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The airplane maker is beneath investigation by the protection board and the Federal Aviation Administration over the episode on Jan. 5 with the Alaska Airways jet, a Boeing 737 Max 9 that had taken off from Portland, Ore. Nobody was critically injured when the door plug got here off the airplane at about 16,000 toes, however the mishap has prompted new scrutiny of Boeing’s quality-control practices.
A preliminary report launched by the protection board final month stated that 4 bolts meant to maintain the door plug in place had been eliminated at Boeing’s manufacturing unit in Renton and appeared to not have been reinstalled earlier than the airplane was delivered.
Boeing has confronted a wave of criticism because the episode. The F.A.A. barred the corporate from increasing manufacturing of the 737 Max sequence till it addressed quality-control points, and final week, the regulator gave the corporate 90 days to develop a plan to make enhancements.
