The NTSB is awaiting further interviews and documents while it continues to assess the damaged left MED plug that the agency obtained from a person’s backyard after it fell from the Boeing 737 Max airplane. However, the MED plug itself was intact and seemed to have been assembled with proper engineering guidelines. In the wake of the preliminary investigation, Boeing has also issued an official statement, admitting that it is responsible for the events that led to Boeing’s 737 Max flights being grounded.
“An event like this must not happen on an airplane that leaves our factory. We simply must do better for our customers and their passengers,” Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said. To ensure that no similar accidents happen in the future, Boeing says it has started checking the door plug assembly and similar parts more carefully at its suppliers’ factories and at Boeing’s production facility. Additionally, the company says it has installed signs and made appropriate rules to keep track of when the door plug is opened or taken off in the factory, making sure it’s put back and checked before the plane is sent out.
Notably, the company says it is opening its facility for all customers to conduct their own independent reviews of the 737 series airplanes. Additionally, the company says it is tightening the inspection norms across the supply chain and also putting in place an independent assessment to look into the safety and quality management pipeline by vetted experts for all commercial Boeing airplanes. Boeing now has a long way to go at instilling customer faith in its flights, especially because many travelers are now excluding the Boeing 737 Max 9 airplanes from their travel plans.