- Boeing said there was no documentation of work done on the door plug on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max.
- Ed Pierson, a former Boeing manager, testified that another whistleblower gave him the documents.
- Although the NTSB chairwoman said she believed they were different documents than those sought.
A Boeing whistleblower says there was a “criminal cover-up” surrounding the Alaska Airlines explosion in January.
Ed Pierson was one of four people who testified Wednesday before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Pierson was a senior executive at Boeing’s 737 factory and retired in 2018, before the first Max 8 crash.
He constantly raised concerns about the danger of the narrow-body plane and said he had already gotten off a 737 Max before takeoff when he realized what model of plane he had boarded.
Pierson’s testimony Wednesday included a significant new allegation regarding the Alaska Airlines blowout investigation. “I’m not going to sugarcoat this, it’s a criminal cover-up,” he said.
After a 737 Max 9 lost its door plug mid-flight, leaving a gaping hole in the fuselage, the National Transportation Safety Board said keyed bolts designed to secure it were missing.
The NTSB said the door plug was removed at the Boeing factory to repair broken rivets, but the aircraft maker told investigators it did not have documentation of that work.
“Regarding documentation, if the removal of the door plug was not documented, there would be no documentation to share,” Boeing said in a statement last month.
But Pierson said Wednesday: “The files do exist. I know because I personally forwarded them to the FBI.”
Asked for more details on the matter by Ranking Member Ron Johnson, Pierson said an “internal whistleblower” sent him the documents about the work done on the door stopper.
“For the last few months it’s been said there are no records, and that’s obviously not the case,” Pierson added. “It’s been available for months.”
The FBI is investigating whether criminal charges should be filed against Boeing following the explosion. Passengers on the Alaska Airlines flight received letters from the FBI indicating they could be victims of a crime.
The struggling aircraft maker has seen its shares fall by a third since the start of the year, according to data from Markets Insider.
Citing people familiar with the matter, The Seattle Times reported that Pierson was referring to an informal database used to track problems at the 737 Max factory, called the Shipside Action Tracker.
Jennifer Homendy, chairwoman of the NTSB, told FlightGlobal: “I believe the whistleblower has the tracking system on board the ship, which we already have, (and) those are not the documents we are looking for.”
Boeing did not comment directly on Pierson’s remarks when contacted by Business Insider. In a statement on its safety culture, the aircraft manufacturer said: “Since 2020, Boeing has taken significant steps to foster a safety culture that empowers and encourages all employees to raise their voices. »
“We continue to place safety and quality above all else and share information transparently with our regulator, customers and other stakeholders,” the statement added.
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