The NTSB has confirmed the door plug, which blown out from an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9, was made in Malaysia.
The head of the safety agency looking into the major scare when the door on an Alaska Airlines flight blew out mid-air has provided an update on Wednesday (Jan 17). National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chief Jennifer Homendy said that the blown-out panel of the jetliner was manufactured in Malaysia by Boeing’s leading supplier.
Notably, an Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which departed from Portland, Oregon, was forced to make a freak emergency landing on Friday (Jan 5) in the wake of a door “plug” that blew off mid-air when the plane was at a frightening height of 16,000 feet.
Homendy noted that Spirit AeroSystems produced the panel and now the safety agency is looking into the procedure of its production to ascertain what went wrong. This comes after Homendy held a closed-door meeting with members of the Senate Commerce Committee in Washington, media reports said.
A Spirit AeroSystems representative, in a remark that conceded to what was disclosed by the NTSB head, affirmed that the panel was produced by the company. The company spokesperson also reassured that the firm is ready to render any help needed by NTSB to look into the case.