One Year after Boeing Door Plug Incident

Federal Aviation Administration
Cleared for Takeoff
3 min readJan 2, 2025

By Mike Whitaker, FAA Administrator

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker in front of U.S. flag

One year ago, a little over two months into my tenure as FAA Administrator, a mid-cabin door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX after it departed from Portland, Oregon. I was at home when I got the news — it was a Friday evening and I had just spent the day at the FAA Command Center in Virginia.

Aircraft doors are designed so they cannot be opened during pressurized flight. Was there an external event — such as an incendiary device — that caused this event? If not, there was potentially a serious problem with this aircraft that needed to be addressed immediately.

I spoke with our safety experts and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to get all the facts and inputs before making the decision to issue an emergency airworthiness directive grounding all MAX aircraft built with this type of plug door. That soon led to a series of unprecedented steps that dramatically transformed how we oversee Boeing.

We put more inspectors on the factory floors. We capped production levels of the 737 MAX. We conducted an in-depth audit of the production line. And most significantly, we required Boeing to develop a comprehensive plan to fix its systemic production quality problems.

In addition to multiple meetings with Boeing’s leadership at FAA’s offices in Washington, I visited Boeing’s facilities several times in 2024 to engage directly with their workforce and get their feedback on company policies and safety culture. Employee safety reporting is a key element of a healthy safety culture, and I directly communicated the importance of a robust whistleblowing reporting program with Boeing’s CEO and ensured the independent FAA safety hotline information has been shared with all Boeing employees. Because of our work, we received a surge in employee safety reports during the past year, and that’s encouraging. An increase in reports — whether at a manufacturer, an airline or at the FAA — can be one sign of a healthy safety culture.

The recent machinists’ strike halted production for several weeks, but FAA inspectors remained in the factory and focused on issues like training and making sure aircraft were safely stored. As the strike ended, I spoke directly with the CEO about the importance of adhering to safety-management principles as Boeing resumed production. It’s clear that message hit home, as Boeing spent a full month post-strike making sure the necessary safety steps were taken before restarting production.

Boeing is working to make progress executing its comprehensive plan in the areas of safety, quality improvement and effective employee engagement and training. We’re actively monitoring the results and keeping a close eye on work at key Boeing facilities. FAA safety experts continually review the effectiveness of the changes; senior FAA leaders meet with Boeing weekly to review their performance metrics, progress, and any challenges they’re facing; we have conducted an unprecedented number of unannounced audits; and we conduct monthly status reviews with Boeing executives to monitor progress. Our enhanced oversight is here to stay.

But this is not a one-year project. What’s needed is a fundamental cultural shift at Boeing that’s oriented around safety and quality above profits. That will require sustained effort and commitment from Boeing, and unwavering scrutiny on our part.

We are looking at all aspects of our oversight and we continue to support the NTSB’s investigation of the door-plug accident. We will review any recommendations the NTSB provides, as well as any other recommendations from other parties, including the Office of Inspector General, to improve our internal processes. Our goal is to develop even more dynamic oversight protocols that enable us to anticipate and identify risks before incidents occur.

I have the utmost confidence that the agency’s highly skilled and deeply committed team of safety professionals will continue to apply the rigorous oversight required to make sure this happens after my tenure as Administrator ends.

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Cleared for Takeoff
Cleared for Takeoff

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