Understanding who did the work and why bolts were apparently not re-installed, and how
Boeing’s follow-up inspections before the two-month-old airplane was delivered to Alaska in late October 2023, will be key to the NTSB’s probe
As reported
in the Seattle Times, the NTSB investigation has revealed that a team of Boeing workers who specialize in servicing the door plugs on the assembly line in Seattle were assigned to enable three visiting contract workers engaged by Spirit Aerosystems to access and repair faulty rivets in the door plug area. When the plug was replaced after the rivet work was done, the Boeing team left out four critical bolts, causing the door to eventually work free and depart from the aircraft during a passenger flight at 16,000 feet.
In the past however, quality inspectors have alleged Boeing managers sometimes asked mechanics to fix defects but not record the repair work. This reduced the defect count, projecting a false sense of stability in the manufacturing work. In 2019, the Machinists union alleged this tactic was used to justify reducing the number of quality inspections.