On January 5, 2024, a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines flight some 16,000 feet above Oregon, causing chaos among the crew and incredible fear for the passengers. The problem was traced back to quality issues after the plane departed Boeing's factory in Renton, Washington, missing the four bolts that hold the door plug in place.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released some 3,000 pages of documents about the accident, but questions remained about what happened on the manufacturing floor. Boeing blamed supplier incompetence and pointed fingers at Spirit AeroSystems, which it has since acquired for some $8.3 billion. Still, the incident was just another straw on Boeing's back, causing what has been called a "crisis of competence."

Most Read on IEN:

This week, the NTSB is holding a two-day hearing to gain insight into the root cause of the failures behind the blowout. On the first day of the hearing, testimony revealed a grim company culture, with Boeing workers feeling pressured to work too fast and partners treated like "cockroaches."

According to transcripts of conversations between NTSB investigators and workers via CNN, one worker identified as an assembler said, "We were definitely trying to put out too much product ... that's how mistakes are made. People try to work too fast."

Another employee said rework was common, which is how the door plug ended up missing bolts. The plug was taken out to fix some rivets, and the bolts were neglected when it was replaced. The worker says his team was in "uncharted waters," frequently replacing door plugs without any special training. The problems were consistent, as planes came in "jacked up every day."

Spirit AeroSystems made the fuselage in the incident, and while the supplier had employees on the plant floor, the two staffs didn't exactly play nice. One Spirit employee told investigators that workers felt like "the cockroaches of the factory."

FAA inspectors said they were unable to substantiate claims about workers being pressured, but one Boeing team captain did admit that the 737 factory suffered from problems with morale and turnover resulting from job-related stress.

And that's just what we heard on the first day of testimony.