Boeing under criminal investigation for Alaska flight blowout

The company and NTSB argued over whether Boeing had cooperated with investigators prior to the criminal investigation in a Senate committee hearing Wednesday.

Associated Press,My Bellingham NowThis photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows a gaping hole where the paneled-over door had been at the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, Jan. 7, 2024, in Portland, Ore. Boeing has refused to disclose who worked on the door plug that blew off a jetliner, according to the head of the agency that's conducting the investigation. Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Board, also said Wednesday, March 6, 2024 that Boeing has failed to turn over documentation around work on the plane — or whether records even exist. (National Transportation Safety Board via AP, File)

RENTON, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – The Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into the Boeing jetliner blowout that left a gaping hole on an Alaska Airlines plane.

Investigators have contacted some passengers and crew, including pilots and flight attendants, who were on the Jan. 5 flight. The Boeing plane used by Alaska Airlines suffered the blowout seven minutes after takeoff from Portland, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing.

Boeing has acknowledged in a letter to Congress that it cannot find records for work done on the door panel of the Alaska Airlines plane. The company said its working hypothesis was that the records about the panel’s removal and reinstallation on the final assembly line in Renton were never created, even though Boeing’s systems required it.

The letter followed a contentious Senate committee hearing Wednesday, March 6 in which Boeing and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) argued over whether the company had cooperated with investigators. The safety board’s chair, Jennifer Homendy, testified that for two months Boeing repeatedly refused to identify employees who work on door panels. Shortly after the Senate hearing, Boeing said it had given the NTSB the names of all employees who work on 737 doors.