The United States transport safety officials are currently investigating a mid-air emergency involving a Boeing 737 Max 9.
According to BBC, they have released thousands of pages of documents, including testimony detailing the “chaos” following the blowout of an unused door.
The investigation comes as the National Transportation Safety Board conducts a two-day hearing on the 5 January incident involving an Alaska Airlines flight.
Boeing has informed investigators that it plans to implement design changes to prevent similar incidents in the future.
This incident marks the second major crisis for the aviation giant in recent years.
Within the over 3,000 pages of documents released before the hearing, the flight crew described the violent decompression caused by the mid-flight detachment of the panel.
The co-pilot reported a “loud bang, ears popping, my head got pushed up into the [head-up display] and my headset got pushed, not off my head, but up almost off my head.” They described the scene as “chaos.”
A flight attendant recounted, “And then, just all of a sudden, there was just a really loud bang and lots of whooshing air, like the door burst open.” They added, “Masks came down, I saw the galley curtain get sucked towards the cabin.”
The names of the crew members have been redacted in the documents.
During the hearing, Boeing executives faced questions about the aircraft’s manufacture and the absence of paperwork identifying who performed work on the door plug prior to the blowout.
An initial NTSB report revealed that a repair at a Boeing facility left the panel with four missing bolts, which should have secured it in place.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy criticized Boeing’s safety culture, stating it “needs a lot of work,” and urged the company to address these issues. Boeing’s senior vice president for quality, Elizabeth Lund, mentioned that they are “working on some design changes that will allow the door plug to not be closed if there’s any issue until it’s firmly secured.”
The NTSB and Boeing are still trying to identify who was responsible for the door plug’s removal and reinstallation.
Lund noted that two workers likely involved are now on paid administrative leave.
This incident dealt another significant blow to Boeing’s reputation, resulting in the grounding of Max 9 planes globally for two weeks, a production increase ban, an FBI investigation, and a management shakeup.
Boeing recently announced it would plead guilty to a fraud charge related to fatal crashes of two 737 Max planes over five years ago.
Last week, the company reported a loss of $1.4bn (£1.1bn) for the period between April and June. Boeing has also named aerospace industry veteran and engineer Robert K. ‘Kelly’ Ortberg as its next CEO.
