Initial NTSB report indicates critical parts missing before Alaska Airlines door fell off

Feb. 6 (UPI) -- The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday the initial investigation of January's door blowout on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 has shown that critical components were missing from the Boeing 737 Max 9.

Those missing components -- in particular, four bolts -- were intended to keep the Boeing aircraft door from falling off the fuselage.

The preliminary 19-page NTSB report released one month after the incident said records show damaged rivets were replaced by employees of Spirit AeroSystems in September 2023 at the Boeing facility in Renton, Wash.

According to the report, workers had to open the door plugs to remove the bolts, and photo documentation obtained by Boeing indicated the plug later was closed without at least three of the bolts in their specified locations.

The initial report's findings -- with a full NTSB report expected later this year -- has yet to determine who was at fault for the "in-flight structural failure" for that door that fell 16,000 feet into an Oregon back yard.

No one was seriously injured when the door of the Boeing 737 Max 9 carrying 171 passengers and six crew fell off minutes after Alaska Flight 1282 took off on Jan. 5 from Portland, Ore., on the way to Ontario, Calif.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a 19-day grounding of certain 737 Max aircraft following the incident in order to investigate other aircraft for potential similar problems.

Boeing acknowledged their part in the matter, saying they are taking steps to address and prevent such problems in the future, saying the door-plug issue "must not happen on an airplane that leaves our factory."

"Whatever final conclusions are reached, Boeing is accountable for what happened," Boeing's CEO Dave Calhoun in a statement.