The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Monday night that the investigation into the Alaska Airlines plane that blew out its door panel could take anywhere from 12 to 18 months.
This means it will have a longer impact on airlines, passengers and the future of those Boeing 737 Max 9 planes.
The NTSB emphasized that their mission is to look into not just what happened, but why it happened and the "why" is what’s potentially taking more time to figure out.
This comes as Boeing is set to hold a companywide meeting Tuesday in response to the incident.
“This is not uncommon for aviation-related businesses,” said Mike McCarron, an aviation expert who said Boeing is taking a safety stand-down.
“Take a step back, review all their safety procedures, all their policies and make sure they’re not missing anything in their procedures, and policies and steps and just reaffirm their commitment to making sure they do everything safely and properly. The chance of us hearing anything more than that are really slim,” he said.
NTSB officials believe they know what broke. An examination of a panel that blew out of the plane involved in Friday night’s Alaska Airlines flight shows the door moved upward and then out, with all 12 stops becoming disengaged.
The investigation is also discovering signs of fractured guides and missing bolts.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
“We need to, first and foremost, figure out what happened here on this aircraft. If we have a bigger systemwide or fleet issue, we will issue an urgent safety recommendation to push for change,” said Jennifer Homendy of the NTSB.
The investigation has not derailed some SFO passengers from taking to the skies.
“When you look at the statistics, you can have any accident anywhere too,” said passenger Sel Buyuksarac.
He is one of those whose Alaska Airlines flight has been cancelled. As of Tuesday morning, the airline has had 27 cancelled flights, and United has had 26 cancellations.