Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems defend safety improvements at NTSB hearing

Federal aviation safety officials on Tuesday pressed Boeing executives for answers about what caused a near disaster when a panel on a 737 Max 9 aircraft fell off in-flight.

The January 5 incident on a jet operated by Alaska Airlines was so severe that the aircraft's cockpit blew open and tore off the co-pilot's headset, according to documents released as part of a two-day hearing by the National Transportation Safety Board.

"It was chaos," the co-pilot said in comments released by the agency as part of the proceedings. Four bolts that helped secure the panel, called a door plug, were not replaced after a repair job in a Boeing factory, but the company said the work was not documented, the government agency found in a preliminary report. 

The captain of the Alaska Airlines described "an explosive experience" and said he could not communicate with flight attendants, according to the documents. The pilots quickly landed the aircraft back in Portland, Oregon, and the door plug was later found in a backyard in Cedar Hills, Oregon. Seven passengers and a single fight attendant received minor physical injuries.

"Quite traumatic"

"This was quite traumatic to the crew and passengers," NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said in the hearing. "We are so sorry for all that you experienced during this very traumatic event," she added, speaking to anyone who may have been on the flight or knew someone aboard. 

Homendy and other NTSB members pressed executives from Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, which makes fuselages for Max jets, to explain what may have led up the incident and what steps the companies have taken to ensure safety. 

"This is not a PR campaign for Boeing. What I want to know, what we want to know, is what happened in March, April, May, June, July, August, September, leading up to this, leading up to what happened in January?" Homendy said. 

Witnesses for Boeing and Spirit defended the companies' respective safety systems and inspection practices. 

"Every fuselage goes through a final product verification which is a dedicated area in the Spirit factory where we have Boeing inspectors," Doug Ackerman, vice president of supplier quality for Boeing commercial airplanes, told the panel, describing a change in procedure that began March 1.

The inspections involve "going over the fuselage front to back, inside and outside to identify any discrepancy," said Ackerman, and typically take a couple of days. Boeing takes ownership of the fuselage as it exits the Spirit factory in Wichita, Kansas, he added. 

"We want to have acceptance verification at the location where it is manufactured," Ackerman said. 

The NTSB will not determine what caused the blowout after the hearing — that could take another year or longer. Rather, the federal agency is calling the unusually long hearing a fact-finding step.

Design changes planned 

Elizabeth Lund, Boeing's senior vice president of quality — a new position as of Febuary — said in the hearing that the company hopes to have a fix in place within the year to potentially prevent such a blowout from happening again. 

"They are working on some design changes that will allow the door plug to not be closed if there's any issue until it's firmly secured," Lund said in responding to questions as to why Boeing did not have a warning system for door plugs akin to what's in place for regular doors. 

The NTSB in June found Boeing had broken investigation rules when Lund provided non-public information to media and speculated about possible causes. 

Boeing in July agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge and pay at least $243.6 million to resolve a Justice Department probe into two 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people. 

Still in crisis mode, Boeing's stock has shed more than a third of its value this year, with the company hemorrhaging cash amid its greatly reduced production.

Lund said production of Max jets declined to under 10 a month after the Alaska Airlines blowout and has increased, but remains at less than 30 a month.

Boeing announced a new CEO last week, and has agreed to repurchase Spirit to get better control of its manufacturing. 

—CBS News' Kris Van Cleave and Kathryn Krupnik, along with the Associated Press, contributed to this report.