Boeing president and CEO David Calhoun described his initial reaction to the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 incident as “devastated” and “emotional”, adding that Boeing’s job is now to “understand literally everything that has happened…. and make sure it can never happen again”.
Speaking on US network CNBC, Calhoun defined the issues as concerning a “discrete set of airplanes with a very discrete plug,” highlighting that despite having a “proven design,” a “quality escape occurred”. When questioned over any potential correlation with previous MAX issues, he added: “We have not had safety related [incidents]. This one is. And it’s very important we understand that”.
Boeing will also make changes to the 737-MAX 9 operating manual, confirmed the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which has shared its preliminary findings of the ongoing investigation. Although the cockpit door was designed to open during a rapid decompression, none of the crew knew this would happen. Amendments will then “hopefully translate into procedures and information for the flight attendants and crew,” said the NTSB.
Initial NTSB investigations also indicated that “all 12 stops [on the door frame] became disengaged, allowing it to blow out of the fuselage”. It is also unclear whether the “four bolts that restrain it from its vertical movement” were fitted there, something a closer inspection of the door plug in the NTSB’s Washington laboratory will seek to ascertain.
Although a bottom hinge fitting and a spring have not yet been recovered, the NTSB added that while the elements were “not key to this investigation” it was “always nice to have some [more] of the pieces”.