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Almost damaged Boeing 737 Max 9: information puzzled together from pictures and emails

Photo: Ntsb / EPA

Criticism from US accident investigators raises new questions about quality management at Boeing.

The NTSB investigative agency has been trying in vain for weeks to get documents about the work on the fuselage part that was torn off during a flight in early January, its chief Jennifer Homendy said at a hearing on Wednesday.

"Either they exist and we don't have them - or they don't exist at all," she emphasized.

In both cases questions arise.

Boeing simply said that if the work “had not been documented, there would be no documents that could be shared.”

A spokesman, citing the ongoing NTSB investigation, left unanswered the question of whether Boeing now has records of the work steps or not.

Look for four bolts

The near-miss had increased pressure on Boeing to provide better quality oversight in production.

In the incident with a virtually new Boeing 737 Max 9 from the US airline Alaska Airlines, a fuselage fragment broke off at row 26 shortly after take-off.

The more than 170 people on board largely escaped horror.

However, experts pointed out that by a lucky coincidence the two seats at the hole in the fuselage remained empty.

According to initial investigations, the NTSB assumes that four fastening bolts on the fuselage part were completely missing.

There is evidence that the fragment continued to slide until it broke out on the 154th flight, Homendy said in the US Senate hearing.

In this place, variants of the 737 Max 9 with more seats have an emergency exit - but on the Alaska plane there was a cover for the opening as a fuselage element instead of a door.

Initial investigations showed that work was being done on the part at the Renton plant.

But the NTSB couldn't get to the details, Homendy complained at the hearing.

"We think we know on which days the work was carried out" - but only because the investigators pieced together information from pictures and emails.

The authority also knows that there is a team of 25 people in Renton with its own manager who is responsible for doors.

But the manager was on sick leave and Boeing did not provide the names of the 25 employees so that they could be interviewed.

"It's absurd that we don't have this after two months," criticized Homendy.

"Following a recent request, we have now made the full list of people in the team responsible for doors available," said a spokesman a few hours after the hearing.

mik/dpa AFX