Connect with us

News

Boeing overwrote surveillance footage of door plug repair, NTSB chair says

Published

on

Boeing overwrote surveillance footage of door plug repair, NTSB chair says

Boeing overwrote surveillance footage from the repair facility where a door plug was reinstalled ahead of the blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight earlier this year, according to a letter Wednesday from National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jennifer Homendy to the Senate Commerce Committee.

The NTSB had been requesting the footage in order to investigate what happened during the midflight scare.

The NTSB still does not know which Boeing employees worked on the failed door plug of Alaska Airlines 1282, which had its door plug blow out during a flight in January, Homendy also said in the letter.

The fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Boeing 737-9 Max, which was forced to make an emergency landing with a gap in the fuselage, is seen during its investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board in Portland, Ore, Jan. 7, 2024.

NTSB/Handout via Reuters, FILE

Advertisement

“To date, we still do not know who performed the work to open, reinstall, and close the door plug on the accident aircraft,” Homendy wrote to Sens. Maria Cantwell and Ted Cruz. “Boeing has informed us that they are unable to find the records documenting this work.”

Boeing said in a statement Wednesday that it will continue to support the NTSB’s investigation “in the transparent and proactive fashion we have supported all regulatory inquiries into this accident.”

“We have worked hard to honor the rules about the release of investigative information in an environment of intense interest from our employees, customers, and other stakeholders, and we will continue our efforts to do so,” the statement continued.

During her hearing in front of the committee earlier this month, Homendy informed lawmakers that Boeing had not yet handed over documents needed in their investigation, including the names of 25 people who worked on the door plug.

After NTSB investigators initially requested the documents on Jan. 9, they learned the door crew manager was out on medical leave, according to Homendy. They requested updates on Feb. 15 and Feb. 22, though were informed by the manager’s attorney that “he would not be able to provide a statement or interview to NTSB due to medical issues,” Homendy wrote in her letter.

Advertisement

Following the March 6 hearing, Boeing provided a list of names to the NTSB of personnel who reported to the door crew manager, but that list did not identify who performed the door plug work, according to Homendy.

Homendy stated in her letter that she then contacted Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun after receiving the list and asked for the names of those who performed the work. Calhoun “stated he was unable to provide that information and maintained that Boeing has no records of the work being performed,” according to Homendy’s letter.

“The absence of those records will complicate the NTSB’s investigation moving forward,” Homendy wrote in the letter, which was requested in response to questions during her testimony in front of the committee.

Homendy insisted in the letter that her agency is “not in any way seeking the names of employees who performed the work on the door plug for punitive purposes” — saying she instructed the NTSB to protect the identities of the door crew and other front-line employees who come forward.

PHOTO: Jennifer Homendy, Chair of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee at the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, on March 6, 2024, in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer Homendy, Chair of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee at the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, on March 6, 2024, in Washington, D.C.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Advertisement

Following the hearing, Boeing said in a statement to ABC News that the company has responded “comprehensively” to all NTSB requests with relevant information.

“Early in the investigation, we provided the NTSB with names of Boeing employees, including door specialists, who we believed would have relevant information. We have now provided the full list of individuals on the 737 door team, in response to a recent request,” the statement said. “With respect to documentation, if the door plug removal was undocumented there would be no documentation to share.”

“We will continue to cooperate fully and transparently with the NTSB’s investigation,” the company said.

The door plug of Alaska Airlines flight 1282 fell off a few minutes after take off from Portland International Airport on Jan. 5. Passengers captured footage showing a hole where the door plug came loose on the Boeing 737 Max 9 plane. The plane safely made an emergency landing and no one was seriously injured.

An NTSB preliminary report released last month found that four bolts designed to prevent the door plug from falling off the Boeing 737 Max 9 plane were missing before the plug blew off the flight.

Advertisement

The NTSB will hold a two-day investigative hearing on the door plug incident in August, the agency announced on Tuesday.

The investigating hearing will “assist in obtaining information necessary to determine the facts, circumstances, and probable cause of the transportation accident or incident under investigation and to make recommendations to improve transportation safety,” the NTSB said in a statement.

The agency held similar hearings last year on the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

News

Man Charged With Posting Bomb Instructions Used in New Orleans Attack

Published

on

Man Charged With Posting Bomb Instructions Used in New Orleans Attack

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a former Army serviceman they accused of distributing instructions on how to build explosives that were used by a man who conducted a deadly attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day last year.

The former serviceman, Jordan A. Derrick, a 40-year-old from Missouri, was charged with one count of engaging in the business of manufacturing explosive materials without a license; one count of unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device; and one count of distributing information relating to manufacturing explosives, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday. The three charges together carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison.

Starting in September 2023, the authorities said, Mr. Derrick was using various social media sites to share videos of himself making explosive materials, including detonators. His videos provided step-by-step instructions, and he often engaged with viewers in comments, sometimes answering their questions about the chemistry behind the explosives.

The authorities said that Mr. Derrick’s videos were downloaded by Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, who was accused of ramming a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2025, in a terrorist attack that killed 14 people and injured dozens. Mr. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with the police. Before the attack, Mr. Jabbar had placed two explosives on Bourbon Street, the authorities said, but they did not detonate.

The authorities later recovered two laptops and a USB drive in a house that Mr. Jabbar had rented. The USB drive contained several videos created by Mr. Derrick that provided instructions on making explosives. The authorities said the explosives they recovered were consistent with the ones Mr. Derrick had posted about.

Advertisement

Mr. Derrick’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Derrick was a combat engineer in the Army, where he provided personnel and vehicle support, the authorities said. He also helped supervise safety personnel during demolitions and various operations. He was honorably discharged in February 2013.

The authorities did not say whether Mr. Derrick had any communication with Mr. Jabbar, or whether the men had known each other. In some of Mr. Derrick’s videos and comments, he indicated that he was aware that his videos could be misused.

“There are a plethora of uh, moral, you know, entanglements with topics, any topic of teaching explosives, right?” he asked in one video, according to the affidavit. “Of course, the wrong people could get it.”

The authorities also said that an explosion occurred at a private residence in Odessa, Mo., on May 4, and the occupant of the residence told investigators that he had manufactured explosives after watching online tutorials from Mr. Derrick.

Advertisement

Mr. Derrick’s YouTube account had more than 15,000 subscribers and 20 published videos, the affidavit said. He had also posted content on other platforms, including Odysee and Patreon. Some videos were accessible to the public for free, while others required a paid subscription to view.

“My responsibility to my countrymen is to make sure that I serve the function of the Second Amendment to strengthen it,” Mr. Derrick said in one of his videos, according to the affidavit. “This is how I serve my country for real.”

Outside of the income he received through content creation, Mr. Derrick did not have any known employment. He did receive a monthly disability check from Veterans Affairs, the affidavit stated.

Continue Reading

News

The Girls: “This isn’t ringing alarms to y’all?” : Embedded

Published

on

The Girls: “This isn’t ringing alarms to y’all?” : Embedded
Allegations pile up, but Child Protective Services declines to investigate and the school district continues to promote Ronnie Stoner. We include an update at the end of the episode. “The Girls” is a 4-part series from the Louisville Public Media’s investigative podcast, Dig.
Continue Reading

News

Chud the Builder, Known for Racist Confrontations, Charged With Attempted Murder

Published

on

Chud the Builder, Known for Racist Confrontations, Charged With Attempted Murder

A streamer known for hurling racist slurs in public settings under the nickname “Chud the Builder” was charged with attempted murder after a shooting outside a Tennessee courthouse on Wednesday, the authorities said.

The streamer, Dalton Eatherly, 28, was involved in a confrontation with an unidentified man that escalated to gunfire outside the Montgomery County Court in Clarksville, about 50 miles northwest of Nashville, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Both men sustained gunshot wounds and were in stable condition, the office said.

In addition to attempted murder, Mr. Eatherly was charged with employing a firearm during dangerous felony, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, the sheriff’s office said.

Mr. Eatherly, who is white, has accumulated an online audience by livestreaming confrontations in which he uses racist language toward Black people in public.

Law enforcement did not provide any details about the second man involved in Wednesday’s shooting. Mr. Eatherly posted an audio recording online of paramedics treating his wounds in which he claims he shot the man in self-defense.

Advertisement

A video posted by the website Clarksville Now shows Mr. Eatherly on a stretcher with a microphone attached to his lapel.

Mr. Eatherly is being held at the Montgomery County Jail, pending arraignment, the sheriff’s office said.

According to court records, Mr. Eatherly was scheduled to appear for a court hearing on Wednesday morning in an unrelated case brought by Midland Credit Management, a collections agency.

A lawyer listed in court records from a separate harassment case in which Mr. Eatherly was a defendant in November did not respond to a request for comment.

On Sunday, three days before the shooting in Clarksville, Mr. Eatherly was arrested in Nashville. According to a police affidavit, Mr. Eatherly live streamed his meal at a restaurant, Bob’s Steak and Chop House, on Saturday even though the restaurant had asked him ahead of time not to do so.

Advertisement

When he was confronted, Mr. Eatherly “became disruptive and started making racial statements, yelling, screaming and otherwise creating a scene,” according to the affidavit.

He then refused to pay for his $370 meal. Mr. Eatherly was charged with theft of services, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He was released on $5,000 bond.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending