06/25/2025

Boeing 737 Door Dislodged due to Systemic Failure, NTSB Chair Says

The accident on the Boeing 737 Max plane happened in January 2024

On Tuesday, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy said the heroic actions of the crew aboard Alaska Airlines flight 1282 ensured everyone survived the terrifying incident last year when a door plug panel flew off the plane shortly after takeoff on Jan. 5, 2024.

But Homendy said "the crew shouldn't have had to be heroes, because this accident never should have happened." She noted that it would not have if Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had done enough to ensure the safety of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft. An NTSB investigation over the past 17 months found that bolts securing what is known as the door plug panel were removed and never replaced during a repair.

Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems — the company that made and installed the door plug — are redesigning them with another backup system to keep the panels in place even if the bolts are missing, but that improvement isn’t likely to be certified by the FAA until 2026 at the soonest.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WBNS-10TV.