The Department of Justice investigators have interviewed a number of witnesses relating to the January 5th blowout of a “door plug,” a fuselage panel that replaces an emergency exit door, from an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max jet, the Washington Post reports, and a grand jury has already been empaneled.
There might be a few things to investigate, besides reports from other operators of the airplane that similar panel insertions had loose bolts or were missing bolts altogether. As NPR reports, in a letter sent to Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell, a Boeing executive said that after an extensive search, employees at the company were unable to find documentation related to the installation of the door plug, saying “the documents required by our processes were not created when the door plug was opened.” How convenient.