NTSB criticizes both Boeing and FAA for terrifying Alaska Airlines door plug incident

Boeing will be back in the hot seat Tuesday as the National Transportation Safety Board holds a hearing to present its findings from an investigation into the terrifying incident in which a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max.

The blame for a horrifying mid-flight blowout of a door plug on an Alaska Airlines flight last year is shared by plane manufacturer Boeing, its supplier Spirit Aerosystems and the Federal Aviation Administration, the chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board said at a hearing Tuesday. “The safety deficiencies that led to this accident should have been evident to Boeing and the FAA,” NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said in opening remarks. “I have lots of questions about where the FAA was during all of this. The FAA is the absolute last barrier of defense when it comes to ensuring aviation safety,” she added. The blowout occurred minutes into a January 2024 flight from Portland, Oregon, when a door plug blew out the side of the plane at about 16,000 feet. It ripped passengers’ clothing and phones out of the plane — but remarkably, there were no serious injuries on a flight that could easily have turned into a tragedy. The NTSB’s preliminary findings had already revealed that four bolts that were supposed to hold the door plug in place were missing when the plane was delivered to Alaska Air in October 2023. During Tuesday’s hearing Homendy praised the crew of the Alaska Air flight several times, calling their actions to get the plane on the ground without any casualties “heroic.”