Alaska Airlines plane may have left Boeing
factory without bolts to secure door plug: report
Fox Business News,
by
Stephen Sorace
Original Article
Posted By: Dreadnought,
1/29/2024 1:25:56 PM
A door plug that broke off midair from an Alaska Airlines passenger plane during a flight earlier this month may have been missing bolts meant to secure it in place when the aircraft left Boeing’s factory, according to a report.
The apparent absence of markings on the door plug has led Boeing and other industry officials to believe that employees of the plane maker failed to put the bolts back after opening or removing the plug during production of the 737 MAX 9, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
These people, according to the newspaper, also noted lapses in the paperwork and procedures related to Boeing’s work
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
Dreadnought 1/29/2024 1:26:16 PM (No. 1646889)
It's like shipping a hand grenade without the transport safety.
5 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
jc96 1/29/2024 1:34:44 PM (No. 1646896)
in related news, power screwdrivers and an assortment of wrenches are now TSA approved for carry on. Ciao, Cris
4 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
bamboozle 1/29/2024 1:41:11 PM (No. 1646902)
Think how much Boeing saved by cutting back on quality control? Folks will begin to say: if it's Boeing, we aren't going
5 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Nimby 1/29/2024 1:43:21 PM (No. 1646903)
Larger questions are : (1) how did the customer not check when they received the aircraft? (2) how did the maintenance not see it?
6 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
whyyeseyec 1/29/2024 1:47:00 PM (No. 1646906)
Soooo, what was holding the plug in place without bolts? Was it just blind luck that the door didn't just fall off while being taxied on the ground - or the rattling of the aircraft on the runway during its initial takeoff roll?
4 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
mc squared 1/29/2024 2:31:52 PM (No. 1646925)
Just a thought: did Boeing fire any (many) workers who refused the shot? If so who replaced them?
8 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Agent Orange 1/29/2024 2:45:59 PM (No. 1646937)
As a guy who restored airplanes at the Museum of Flight in Seattle for ten years, here's my observation.
For the med door to be able to move up a few inches to clear the latching pins, If even one bolt was still in place, the door could not move up and out. It was a good thing that they weren't over the Pacific on their way to Hawaii. Just think what could have happened if the door blew out at 37,000 feet where it's -40°f with a 500 mph wind blowing like a 500 mph hurricane. Most everyone would have died from lack of oxygen and frostbite.
There would be no way the pilot would have time to recover unless both the pilot and first officer were wearing their oxygen masks. I would find out who did what and when and who was responsible for signing the repair off, and fire them.
All of Boeing's woos started when most of the senior management came from McDonnell Douglas and they moved their HQ from Seattle to Chicago, and now I believe to the greater DC area.
Boeing pretty much invented aerial refueling, and now, ten years on, Boeing can't seem to fix all the bugs on the KC-46A Pegasus. Could it be that Boeing's woke management teams implemented the sure way to destroy a company by jumping into DEI with both feet?
MSgt USAF (ret)
11 people like this.
So the airline maintenance does not include a check for missing bolts?!!!!
2 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Bur Oak 1/29/2024 3:36:15 PM (No. 1646995)
The bolts don't retain the door but keep the door from moving in two tracks and along two pins that retain the door. To see the bolts, some seats, interior panels, and insulation have to be removed. Not a preflight inspection item.
4 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
DVC 1/29/2024 3:41:57 PM (No. 1647001)
The problem appears to be in terminology used in Boeing. This "door plug" is NOT a door in any real sense, it hinges from the bottom, tilts out at the top, and cannot be normally opened AT ALL without tools.
BUT, in the documents and procedures at Boeing, there are strict requirements for inspection after "removing a door", but no particular inspections required for "opening a door". So....when they "opened" the DOOR PLUG.....which required removing the bolts that prevent the latches from unlatching....it was considered "opening a door" and did not trigger an inspection afterwards.
This is the problem. No inspection triggered when bolts were removed to unlatch the latches, because it was a "door". So, a simple error of forgetting the bolts had no backup inspection, as pretty much any other actual disassembly operation does....because of terminology, they were "openng a door",
not removing a door.
Tiny, tiny errors which humans WILL MAKE can lead to serious problems.
So, let's hope that the DOOR PLUG is now not considered a door, and that ANY opening will now trigger an inspection to verify that the 'closing' was properly done. The closing WAS properly done....but not the locking bolts which absolutely prevent the latches from moving.
Note these bolts HOLD nothing, they are blocking bolts, which prevent the latches from moving, a bit like a chock in front of a wheel...no real load, just blocks motion.
This engineer and pilot has been learning everything I can about this problem to understand it. This is the latest information that I have found on how this happened. The latch design is sound, the bolts to prevent unlatching don't hold the door shut, or the door latches in place....they only block unlatching.
4 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
DVC 1/29/2024 3:42:57 PM (No. 1647004)
Re #3, there was no "cut back on quality control" there was an error in terminology, and being cutesy and mean doesn't solve any problems.
2 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
NeonVortex 1/29/2024 7:40:12 PM (No. 1647130)
DEI
0 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
broken01 1/30/2024 11:45:52 AM (No. 1647523)
Question, who in the blue hell is putting the planes together over at Boeing, the Marx Brothers?
0 people like this.
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