Cantwell to Boeing: You Have 48 Hours to Hand Over Key Documents to Federal Investigators
Chairwoman demands in letter full and immediate cooperation with ongoing NTSB investigation into January Alaska Airlines accident; NTSB Chair indicates at hearing that Boeing stonewalling door plug accident investigation by failing to provide access to key protocols, documents, personnel
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following Senate testimony today from the Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Jennifer Homendy, that Boeing has failed to provide access to key protocols, documents, and personnel necessary for its investigation into the cause of January’s 737 MAX-9 door plug accident, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, sent a letter to Boeing calling for their full and immediate cooperation. NTSB Chair Homendy testified that, to date, Boeing has not provided requested documentation associated with the removal and re-installment of the “door plug” which flew off the aircraft, nor have they given NTSB access to the team of employees assigned to aircraft doors or even identified those employees.
“…[E]very shift is documented, you know the workers that were involved in this particular area, you can get their names, you can ask for interviews with those individuals. And you're saying that that hasn't happened?” Sen. Cantwell asked Chair Homendy.
“We have gone through emails, we've gone through texts, we've looked at pictures to begin to get a picture of the date in mid-September, the two dates in mid-September that we believe the work occurred,” Chair Homendy responded. “We haven't received that information directly from Boeing. We also believe we know what shift it occurred on. But we still -- there is one team … that deals with the doors, of 25 people. Why we don't have those names today, two months later, is really disappointing.”
“Well, it's beyond disappointing,” Sen. Cantwell said. “We have an entire economy that depends on people getting this right. And I thought that the CEO said that they would cooperate to the fullest. So, it seems like this information is now stymieing your investigation, and it seems that it's knowable, and that you should at least be able to talk to the individuals there.”
After the hearing concluded, Sen. Cantwell sent a letter to Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, demanding that the company provide NTSB with the requested information – including documentation of the door plug removal and reinstallation, and the names of the 25 persons assigned to the door plug team – within 48 hours.
“Please provide this investigative information to the NTSB within the next 48 hours so they can conduct their investigation,” wrote Sen. Cantwell. “If complying with this demand is not possible for some reason, please provide me with a thorough explanation of why not within the same time period… We cannot delay the important work of federal safety investigators.”
Here is the full exchange between Sen. Cantwell and Chair Homendy:
Sen. Cantwell: Were you able to get from the company what specific procedures that they have for identifying, storing, protecting, retrieving, and retaining quality records? Were they forthcoming on that?
Chair Homendy: We have not received that information.
Sen. Cantwell: Does the fact that Boeing has not produced these documents or that NTSB investigators have not been able to retrieve them indicate that they do not exist or ever existed?
Chair Homendy: They may not. There are two options. Either they exist, and we don't have them, or they do not exist, which raises two very different questions -- several different questions depending on which one is the right answer.
Sen. Cantwell: If you don't have that documentation, what does it say about the quality assurance program?
Chair Homendy: We have been told…. let me back up on that. We have been informed that they have a procedure to maintain documents on when work is performed, including when door plugs are open, closed, or removed. We have not been able to verify that. And without that information that raises concerns about quality assurance, quality management, safety management systems within Boeing.
Sen. Cantwell: So that's why I asked that first question about procedures for identifying, storing, and protecting. Everybody knows out at Boeing that the workers think that the plane will fly when the paperwork weighs more than the plane. That is their way of saying a lot of paperwork exists. People know that you don't move the line without paperwork. That's just part of the process.
So, the question is, are you looking at those procedures, and you're saying they're not forthcoming, even on the procedures?
Chair Homendy: That's correct. But we are looking at those procedures, we go very in depth and very broad. We'll look at the procedures, policies, we will also look at other work that was done around the same time or within the last several years to see if there are concerns with other work or records that may be missing.
So we go in depth, and we are also going in depth on safety culture, safety promotion, safety management as a whole.
Sen. Cantwell: Okay, and so is the FAA in there? [Are] aviation safety investigators helpful in this or not helpful?
Chair Homendy: FAA has been very cooperative and very helpful to us in the investigation, and we appreciate them. They've been a partner throughout this from the very beginning,
Sen. Cantwell: I'm saying do any of their aviation inspectors on site have data or information about what processes and procedures may have existed or didn't exist?
Chair Homendy: That is something that I would like to follow up with our team and get back to you on.
Sen. Cantwell: Okay. And then back to this point, every shift is documented, you know the workers that were involved in this particular area, you can get their names, you can ask for interviews with those individuals. And you're saying that that hasn't happened?
Chair Homendy: Correct. We have gone through emails, we've gone through texts, we've looked at pictures to begin to get a picture of the date in mid-September, the two dates in mid-September that we believe the work occurred.
We haven't received that information directly from Boeing. We also believe we know what shift it occurred on. But we still there is one team, one team that deals with the doors of 25 people. Why we don't have those names today, two months later, is really disappointing.
Sen. Cantwell: Well, it's beyond disappointing. We have an entire economy that depends on people getting this right. And I thought that the CEO said that they would cooperate to the fullest. So, it seems like this information is now stymieing your investigation, and it seems that it's knowable, and that you should at least be able to talk to the individuals there.
Do you have any concerns, there was a report about, there could be an additional, because there was a consent decree that was about to expire, that any kind of other investigation by Department of Justice would impact your investigation?
Jennifer Homendy: I do have concerns, our attorneys also have concerns. Only from the aspect, we don't want to tell any other agency what they should or should not do.
Where it becomes a concern for us - we'll get the information at some point. Where it becomes a concern for us is when employees and others don't feel safe to speak to us.
Sen. Cantwell: Well, that is occurring now. And so, what do we need to do to make sure that people feel safe and secure? That's part of the expert report. It's part of why we passed ACSAA to make sure there was no retaliation. What else can we do? And we can't have a viewpoint that, I just had to keep the line moving. That's not the viewpoint we want. We want employees who are saying, I have a concern about this, to be listened to, and to be backed up by those FAA ASIs. That's what we want.
And so, in this case, we want to understand whether that kind of retaliation still exists, and what we can do to make sure that these people feel free to speak to you, and to others who are investigating.
Last month, the NTSB released a preliminary report that found four bolts needed to secure the door plug on the Boeing 737 MAX-9 were missing before the aircraft was delivered to the airline.
Sen. Cantwell has a decades-long history as a leader and staunch advocate for strong aviation safety reforms. She authored the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act (ACSAA), comprehensive bipartisan, bicameral aviation safety legislation that implemented new aircraft safety and certification reforms in the wake of the Boeing 737 MAX crashes and was signed into law on December 27, 2020. In December 2021, Chair Cantwell released the Aviation Safety Whistleblower Report as part of the Committee’s oversight over the aircraft design and certification of the Boeing 737 MAX, and the implementation of key congressional aviation safety reform mandates.
Following the Jan. 5 Boeing accident, Sen. Cantwell requested information and safety audit documents from the FAA related to Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems to ensure manufacturers cannot avoid audit accountability and are complying with FAA quality control regulations. Just this week, the FAA gave an audit update and said that it found multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.
Recently, Sen. Cantwell passed her bipartisan Senate FAA Reauthorization Act out of Committee, which includes the NTSB Reauthorization for the next five years. The bill would make critical investments in aviation infrastructure, technology, and both the FAA and industry workforces to strengthen aviation safety. Specifically, the bill mandates new 25-hour cockpit recording devices be installed in new aircraft and retrofitted in current aircraft to preserve critical data. The bill also overhauls the aviation inspector staffing model to ensure key safety positions are filled in the technical workforce related to aircraft certification.
Sen. Cantwell and Homendy Q&A video HERE and audio HERE; Sen. Cantwell opening remarks video HERE and audio HERE; Sen. Cantwell closing remarks video HERE and audio HERE.
A transcript is available HERE.
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