Whitaker to Explain FAA Role in 737 Max Door Plug Mishap

[Image courtesy of C-SPAN]

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker is being called to Washington, D.C., again to explain the FAA's role in the Boeing 737 Max door plug blowout in January.

Whitaker will appear before an investigative subcommittee of the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on September 25 to discuss the FAA's oversight of Boeing after a new Max 9 went through Boeing's Renton, Washington, assembly plant and was delivered without four bolts that secured the door plug.

READ MORE: NTSB Grills Boeing Over Max 9 Door Plug Loss

On January 5, the door plug detached while the plane was climbing out of Portland, Oregon, on an Alaska Airlines flight to California.

Boeing has already testified in June before lawmakers in trying to explain how that error happened despite its safeguards. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who chairs the committee, suggested Whitaker is in for a rough ride next week.

"Instead of encouraging workers to report quality and safety concerns, Boeing’s culture pushed workers to conceal problems that required federal inspectors’ attention," Blumenthal said. "The FAA has to explain what they knew and when they knew it. Boeing’s broken safety culture is in desperate need of repair, and the FAA has an essential role to play."

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

Boeing Boeing 737 Max door plug FAA U.S. Senate

Russ NilesAuthor

Russ Niles has been a journalist for 40 years, a pilot for 30 years and joined AVweb in 2003. When he’s not writing about airplanes he and his wife Marni run a small winery in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley.