NTSB to determine probable cause of Boeing 737 door plug blowout Tuesday

HELLFIRE

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/23/business/ntsb-probable-cause-door-plug-alaska-airlines

… On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board will hear the investigation’s findings and vote on the probable cause of the incident was. The findings could put to rest one of the biggest questions around the terrifying incident: Who is to blame? …

FWIW, mark your calendars.

Regards

real_aurgathor

HELLFIRE Who is to blame?

Those evil AWOL fasteners!! They must be arrested, fastened, and thread locked for the rest of their life!

real_aurgathor

Well: “NTSB chair says systemic failures led to door plug flying off Boeing 737 Max plane midflight”

There are lots of details there such as: “Boeing factory workers told NTSB investigators they felt pressured to work too fast and were asked to perform jobs they weren’t qualified for, including opening and closing the door plug on the particular plane involved. ” so its worth to read the entire article.

The direct cause was apparently:

The panel that blew off was made and installed by a supplier, Spirit AeroSystems. It was removed at a Boeing factory so workers could repair damaged rivets, but bolts that help secure the door plug were not replaced. It’s not clear who removed the panel.

I’m not a mechanic by profession, but I’ve learned a long-long time ago if something is taken apart and then put back together, one needs to use all the fasteners, especially since we’re talking about a ‘vehicle’ that is subject to vibration, pressurization, and varying forces.

As I understood the door was held in the door channel by the gravity and friction, and the fasteners were there mostly to prevent the door plug to slide up and out of the channel, so even a *single* properly installed fastener may have been enough to prevent the blow-out.

And they had no good record of it, so couldn’t determine who did the work. 😒

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ntsb-set-meet-door-plug-investigation-terrifying-alaska-airlines-fligh-rcna214686

HELLFIRE

To be fair :

NTSB isn’t really in the business of legal fault / liability
Boeing and Spirit Aerospace neatly sidestepped anything major, far as I can tell
no doubt there will be endless fingerpointing and counter-fingerpointing in the court of public opinion

Something I noted when this story broke during the DSLR days, how is it Spirit didn’t seem to have this problem with the other bodies it built for Airbus? Or Boeing for the other products based on the 737? Seems no one dug into that…

FWIW : https://apnews.com/article/boeing-ntsb-door-plug-737-alaska-airlines-721493c5e64081145aab21f2cf3fabcd – Systemic failures led to a door plug flying off a Boeing 737 Max, NTSB says

… Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems — the company that made and installed the door plug — are redesigning them with another backup system to keep the panels in place even if the bolts are missing, but that improvement isn’t likely to be certified by the FAA until 2026 at the soonest. The NTSB urged the companies and the regulator to make sure every 737 Max is retrofitted with those new panels. …

… NTSB member J. Todd Inman said the Alaska Airlines accident would have been worse if it had happened over the ocean and far from land, but the carrier had already restricted the plane used for flight 1282 to overland flights because of an unresolved maintenance issue with a fuel pump. The airline took that step on its own, going beyond FAA requirements, Inman said. …

Not sure I personally agree with Alaska Airlines “going above and beyond.” There’s a helluva difference between driving yourself alone vs driving a bus with the “check engine” light on.

shrugs

Regards

HELLFIRE

https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Documents/DCA24MA063%20Board%20Meeting%20Summary.pdf – NTSB Summary here, FWIW. Of interest to me:

The upward displacement before the accident flight would not have been detectable during a routine preflight inspection, and there was no evidence this upward displacement was associated with previous pressurization system AUTO FAIL light illumination events.

Further, the circumstances of this accident emphasized the need for eƯective operator procedures for preserving cockpit voice recorder (CVR) data after an accident or incident occurs, as well as the continued need for installations and retrofits of CVRs with a 25-hour recording capability.

Contributing to the accident was the FAA’s ineƯective compliance enforcement surveillance and audit planning activities, which failed to adequately identify and ensure that Boeing addressed the repetitive and systemic nonconformance issues associated with its parts removal process.

Regards

Somewhat-Reticent

“no evidence” ≠ proof against.