The National Transportation Safety Board has allowed the media to see the actual door plug that blew out during an Alaska Airlines Flight in January.
The look behind the curtain at the NTSB lab was given to members of the media a week before a hearing is scheduled to look into the cause of the incident on Flight 1282, Gray DC reported.
The investigative hearing is scheduled to last two days next week.
The door plug was found in the backyard of a home near Portland, Oregon after it blew off the flight between Portland and Ontario International Airport in California.
[ Alaska Airlines flight: Plane’s door plug found ]
A plug is used to fill holes that are for extra doors when a plane doesn’t have enough seats to require additional emergency evacuation exits, The Associated Press reported. They look like normal windows from inside the plane.
They only are opened during maintenance or inspections. The door plug in question was installed on the Boeing 737 Max at a Spirit AeroSystems plant in Kansas but was removed by Boeing to repair damaged rivets, the AP reported.
[ Bolts were missing on Boeing 737 Max 9 before midair blowout, NTSB says ]
The NTSB had determined that four bolts were missing when it was reinstalled, Gray DC reported.