KUALA LUMPUR – The door plug of the Boeing 737 Max 9 that blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight was made in Malaysia, the United States’ National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has confirmed.
The Wall Street Journal reported NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy saying that aircraft parts manufacturer Spirit AeroSystems had the door plug made in Malaysia.
From Malaysia, the part was transported to the Boeing supplier factory in Wichita, Kansas, and then by train to the 737 factory in Renton, Washington.
Homendy had appeared before the Senate commerce committee’s hearing on the January 5 incident when a panel on the Boeing 737 Max 9 plane blew off mid-flight above Oregon after takeoff from Portland. The plane was then forced to make an emergency landing.
The part, which landed in the yard of a Portland resident, bore handwriting in permanent marker stating the part’s serial number and other manufacturing details, as well as the fact that it was “Made in Malaysia”.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke last week said he had received no official information on the matter.
The door plug seals unused emergency exits and is only opened during maintenance activities. The blow-out left a gaping hole in the plane’s fuselage, causing the cabin to depressurise and exposing passengers to open air at altitude.
Homendy said NTSB would further investigate the door plug’s production, transport, installation and entry into service, noting that there was still no indication as yet of where the blow-out problem might have occurred.
When contacted previously, Spirit AeroSystems senior corporate communications manager Forrest Gossett told Scoop that the company will not be making any statements on the incident on Alaska Airlines flight 1282.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on January 13, grounded all Boeing 737-9 MAX for passengers’ safety, pending extensive inspection and maintenance of the planes, and review of data collected from its investigation.
FAA also informed the Senate commerce committee hearing on Wednesday that it had inspected 40 Boeing planes of the same model and would be reviewing the information.
The planemaker has been in trouble before due to the fatal 2018 and 2019 crashes involving the 737 model, which led to a lengthy global grounding of the aircraft.
In the recent Alaska Airlines incident, all 171 passengers and six crew members returned to Portland International Airport safely, with no serious injuries reported. – January 18, 2024