NTSB sanctions Boeing over release details of investigation into 737 MAX 9 incident
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday it was sanctioning Boeing for disclosing non-public details of an ongoing investigation into a 737 MAX mid-air emergency and would refer its conduct to the Justice Department.
The NTSB said Boeing had “blatantly violated” the agency’s investigative regulations by providing “non-public investigative information to the media” and speculating about possible causes of the Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines door plug blowout.
The move by Boeing has further deepened the strain between the crisis-hit planemaker and government agencies at a time when it is trying to avoid criminal charges being weighed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) ahead of a July 7 deadline, Reuters reported.
The NTSB said Boeing would keep its status as a party to the investigation into the Alaska Airlines emergency but would no longer see unpublished information produced during its probe into the acciden.
Industry experts say barring a manufacturer restricts its ability to access and offer suggestions to an investigation, but frees it to defend its technology and practices more openly.
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“As a party to many NTSB investigations over the past decades, few entities know the rules better than Boeing,” the NTSB said.
The NTSB said the alleged violation of its protocols took place during a media briefing about quality improvements at its commercial airplanes division on Tuesday in Washington State.
“A Boeing executive provided investigative information and gave an analysis of factual information previously released,” the agency said. “Both of these actions are prohibited by the party agreement that Boeing signed.”
During the briefing, which was held on Tuesday under an embargo allowing contents to be published on Thursday, a senior Boeing executive said the plug had been opened on the assembly line without the correct paperwork to fix a quality issue with surrounding rivets, and that missing bolts were not replaced.
The team that came in and closed the plug was not responsible for reinstalling the bolts, Elizabeth Lund, Boeing’s senior vice president of quality, added.
The NTSB said that Boeing had provided it with a transcript revealing that it had provided non-public information.
“Boeing offered opinions and analysis on factors it suggested were causal to the accident,” it added.
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