‘Changed doors like our underwear,’ Boeing workers reveal disorder at factories

As a two-day hearing beganon Tuesday (Aug 6) by USA’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) into the erroneous work culture at Boeing, several testimonies shed light on how workers felt pressure to do work ‘too fast to avoid mistakes’.

The recent hearing is taking place in connection with the January incident with the Boeing 737 Max plane, which lost a door plug as it approached 16,000 feet. The incident caused masks to fall from the ceiling, clothes to come off and phones to slip out of hands into the air. The passengers were lucky though, as the pilots were able to land the bruised plane safely.

Later, it was found that the plane had four bolts missing that were needed to secure the door in place.

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Now, workers who operated on the plane, which left the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, 10 weeks earlierhave revealed how mistakes were made because of the overwhelming workload.

“As far as the workload, I feel like we were definitely trying to put out too much product, right?,” said one unidentified Boeing worker in the testimony. “That’s how mistakes are made. People try to work too fast. I mean, I can’t speak for anybody else, but we were busy. We were working a lot.”

Another worker who worked at the Boeing factory testified that they were “put in uncharted waters to where… we were replacing doors like we were replacing our underwear.”

“Well, basically, we’re the cockroaches of the factory,” another unidentified employee told NTSB investigators.

The January incident reignited safety concerns and prompted several federal investigations. It also led to the grounding of all 737 MAX 9s in the United States. The NTSB says it will “use the information gathered to complete the investigation, determine probable cause, and make recommendations to improve transportation safety.”

A final report by the NTSB may still take months to come out.

Now, the Americanaircraft manufacturer may face criminal charges related to the incident as well as for hiding problems with the 737 Max from the USFederal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The problems with the 737 Max are said to be blamed for the fatal crashes of 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.

(With inputs from agencies)