NTSB says ‘major shakeup’ needed to fix Boeing’s safety issues

US aviation regulators should conduct more surprise audits and inspections at Boeing Co.’s factories to get an unvarnished look at its manufacturing processes months after one of its jets lost a fuselage panel mid-flight, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday. 

There is a place for the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct scheduled audits, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters following the second day of an extensive hearing on the Jan. 5 accident, which involved a Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft flown by Alaska Airlines. “But you also have to have unannounced audits, unannounced discussions with people,” she said.

The notice given ahead of audits was one of the main lines of questioning Homendy had for FAA managers who testified at the two-day hearing seeking answers on why the panel, known as a door plug, blew off during the flight. NTSB board members and staff grilled executives at Boeing and key supplier Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc., as well as officials at the FAA. 

The FAA managers told Homendy that while companies like Boeing and Spirit often receive notice that an audit will occur, they aren’t told specifically what the FAA will be looking at, making it difficult for the firms to effectively plan ahead. 

Homendy said the NTSB has heard stories from FAA personnel who say they’ve scheduled audits at Boeing only to show up to an empty factory because the company’s chosen that day to have a quality stand down. “It happens often,” she said.

The FAA’s oversight of Boeing has faced intense scrutiny since the Jan. 5 accident. 

“The FAA will continue our aggressive oversight to hold Boeing accountable and ensure the company fixes its systemic production-quality issues,” the regulator said in a statement Wednesday after the hearing, adding that it will continue supporting the NTSB in its probe of the door plug accident.

Homendy said the event never should have occurred because there were plenty of audits and compliance reviews documenting issues with unauthorized work and defects years before the midair blowout. 

‘Major Shakeup’

Given that history, something should have been done much sooner, she said. “We’re concerned we’re going to be right here again in a couple of years unless a major shakeup occurs,” she said, adding Boeing needs to turn its safety culture around after the January accident sparked a crisis of confidence in the planemaker. 

Homendy said it will take the NTSB, FAA and Boeing working together to ensure aviation safety going forward. During the hearing, she questioned why the FAA didn’t have access to all reports submitted through Boeing’s internal “Speak Up” program, which employees can use to raise safety concerns. An FAA manager said the agency can currently see some, but not all of the reports. 

In response to the January accident, the FAA capped production of the 737 Max and conducted an audit that found “multiple instances” of Boeing and Spirit failing to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements. The regulator also required Boeing to submit a plan to address the lapses and increased the number of inspectors at the planemaker’s facilities. 

Boeing has made sweeping changes as it emerges from the crisis, including a management shakeout culminating in the appointment last week of former Rockwell Collins executive Kelly Ortberg as CEO. The planemaker also agreed to buy back Spirit in a $4.7 billion all-stock deal to improve build quality.

The FAA managers who testified Wednesday said they’re kept awake at night by the complexity of the system at large manufacturers like Boeing and the difficulty of sustaining corrective actions over the long term.

Homendy isn’t the only one scrutinizing whether the FAA could have done more to prevent the near-tragedy in January. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell raised concerns about the regulator’s oversight in a July letter to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker, saying the agency reported a combined 298 audits of Boeing and Spirit over the two years prior the accident, but those didn’t result in any enforcement actions. 

She and Senator Tammy Duckworth also introduced legislation earlier this month aimed at boosting the FAA’s safety management systems, including by requiring the regulator to analyze prior lapses to identify areas for improvement. 

During a Senate hearing in June, Whitaker said that the FAA was “too hands off” before the Jan. 5 accident and was overly focused on paperwork audits rather than on-the-ground inspections. The agency has since changed that approach, he said at the time. 

The NTSB said it will continue its investigation into the accident with a safety culture survey of Boeing employees in Renton, Washington. Homendy asked the planemaker at the hearing to commit to working with the agency on that, which the company agreed to do.