Boeing says door flew off Alaska Airlines 737 Max because missing paperwork meant four bolts were never reattached to hold it in place

Boeing has issued a bizarre statement after a door plug blew out of one of its planes during an Alaska Airlines flight.

In the terrifying incident, the panel was dramatically torn loose at 16,000 feet just minutes after the California-bound plane took off from Oregon.

Some passengers had their clothes and phones sucked out of the plane, while others were injured when the gaping hole caused a sudden decompression.

During the Jan. 5 ordeal, the FAA grounded Boeing’s 737 Max fleet pending a full-scale investigation, which has so far been hampered by a lack of documentation surrounding the door plug.

However, Boeing has now strangely stated that the missing documents may be the cause of the situation.

The aerospace giant claims the lack of documentation meant the four bolts needed to hold the door in place were never installed. CNN defeated.

Preliminary findings from a National Transportation Safety Board investigation initially showed the bolts were missing.

Boeing said two separate groups of workers are responsible for removing and reinstalling the door plug as the plane moves along the assembly line.

The first group removed the panel to address rivet issues, but were unable to generate a paper trail showing that they had removed the door plug and necessary bolts to perform the work.

According to Boeing, this meant that when the next group reinstalled the door plug, they assumed it was only a temporary blockage and that the plane would not fly again in that state.

“The door team locks the aircraft before moving it outside, but it is not their responsibility to install the pins,” said Elizabeth Lund, senior vice president of quality for Boeing’s commercial airplane division.

Boeing stated that the missing paperwork may be responsible for the door panel blowing out

Engineers removed the panel but left no paper trail to inform their colleagues, meaning the next people to work on the door plug were unaware that four key bolts had been removed and needed to be reinstalled.

“(Permanent) reinstallation is done by another team based on the documentation showing which tasks have not yet been completed,” Lund said. “But there was no documentation, so no one knew how to follow up.”

And in a terrifying twist, it has now emerged that the plane flew in a temporary state for two months before it exploded.

Fortunately, no one was seriously injured and the plane was able to land safely.

But Boeing has since been reprimanded by the NTSB for making the information public before the investigation was complete.

The aircraft manufacturer apologized and defended itself, saying this was done in an attempt to ‘take responsibility’.

The dispute is just the latest setback for the embattled aircraft maker, which has seen stock prices plummet and orders dry up amid safety concerns about its 737 Max jets.

This includes two accidents in 2018 and 2019, which killed a total of 346 people.

Elizabeth Lund, senior vice president of quality at Boeing, said the aircraft manufacturer has slowed production

Several whistleblowers have also raised allegations that key protocols were rushed or overlooked in an attempt to speed up production.

Boeing has since announced that it is slowing the assembly process to prevent planes from moving further, under the assumption that problems will be resolved later.

“We have slowed down our factories to make sure this is under control,” Lund said.