KIRO Newsradio Anchor
An anonymous whistleblower is putting the blame for a door plug blow-out solely on Boeing, slamming the company’s quality control process, and calling the 737 production system a “rambling, shambling, disaster waiting to happen.”
Much of the focus has been on Boeing subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems after a door plug — that’s used in the place of an optional emergency exit — flew off of an Alaska Airlines flight after take off from Portland, Oregon, on Jan. 5.
Spirit manufactures the fuselage on Boeing 737-9 Max jets.
But the report from the whistleblower claims four bolts which hold the door plug in place, “were not installed when Boeing delivered the airplane.” That person added that “our own records reflect this.” The whistleblower wrote a long comment post off of a story published on aviation online publication Leeham News and Analysis (LNA) and claims to be a current Boeing employee. The original story where the comment appeared, “‘Unplanned’ removal, installation inspection procedure at Boeing” can be viewed here.
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Scott Hamilton, an aviation consultant who is the managing editor of LNA, is convinced the author of the post is a person who works at Boeing.
“My sources, including a retired Boeing safety inspector said, yep, this is a Boeing employee,” Hamilton told KIRO Newsradio, explaining that the report was highly detailed and added new information.
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