According to a person that seems to be familiar with the circumstances of the job, the fuselage panel that came off an Alaska Airlines plane earlier this month was removed for repair before being incorrectly reinstalled by Boeing mechanics on the Renton final assembly line.
An anonymous whistleblower posted online, in the comments to an article about the door plug incident on the Leeham.net aviation website .
The Seattle Times reports that if confirmed by the National Transportation Safety Board inquiry, Boeing would be principally responsible for the disaster, rather than its supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which originally fitted the panel in the 737 MAX 9 fuselage in Wichita, Kan.
That panel, a door stopper meant to close a hole in the fuselage that is occasionally utilized to facilitate an emergency exit, broke out of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 as it rose out of Portland on January 5. The occurrence sparked new and harsh criticism of Boeing’s quality control processes and safety culture, which have been under scrutiny since the two fatal 737 MAX crashes five years earlier.