Boeing to change design to prevent future 737 MAX 9 door panel blowouts
Al JazeeraBoeing is working on design changes ‘that will allow the door plug to not be closed’ until it’s firmly secured, it said. Boeing’s senior vice president for quality, Elizabeth Lund, said on Tuesday the plane-maker is working on design changes that it hopes to implement within the year and then retrofit across the fleet. “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,” Lund said during the first of a two-day National Transportation Safety Board investigative hearing in Washington, DC. Lund said on Tuesday that Boeing is still building “in the 20s” for monthly MAX production – far fewer MAXs than the 38 per month it is allowed to produce. “When we’re very overwhelmed with work, it is pressing because with everything we’ve cut down on some personnel, so now it’s like in order for me to not have to deal with a worse situation tomorrow, I’d rather work a 12 to 13-hour shift to get it all done, for my sake, so I don’t have to deal with people the next day.” Also in June, the NTSB said Boeing violated investigation rules when Lund provided non-public information to media and speculated about possible causes.