Passengers on board a Boeing whose door came loose mid-flight may have been victims of a crime, according to the FBI, US media reported on Friday.
At the beginning of March, the Ministry of Justice had already announced that it was opening a criminal investigation into this spectacular incident which occurred on January 5, when a “door stopper” (a metal panel placed in a location capable of accommodating a door) is detached from the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines plane.
Also read “It’s scary”: passengers’ anxiety after repeated incidents on Boeing
No one was seriously injured, but the 737 MAX 9 had to make an emergency landing.
Images of the terrified passengers sitting next to the gaping hole in mid-flight went viral around the world.
The passengers recently received a letter from the FBI, which is investigating the matter, according to the Seattle Times.
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Door torn off in mid-flight on a Boeing 737 Max: poorly screwed bolts on several planes
“I am contacting you because we have identified you as a possible victim of a crime,” wrote an American federal police agent in this document.
“A criminal investigation can be a long-term undertaking and, for several reasons, we cannot inform you of its progress at this time,” he adds.
Several bolts supposed to secure the cap holder were missing, according to the American Transportation Safety Agency (NTSB), which blamed Boeing.
The aircraft manufacturer was particularly criticized for the slowness of its cooperation with the authorities.
In early March, the NTSB explained that it had not received certain important documents, and that the company had still not provided the names of the employees who worked on the part in question.
“It is absurd that two months later, we do not have this information,” denounced the president of the NTSB, Jennifer Homendy, to American parliamentarians.