More from the article...

... "To date, we still do not know who performed the work to open, reinstall, and close the door plug on the accident aircraft," NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy wrote Wednesday in a letter to leaders of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. "Boeing has informed us that they are unable to find the records documenting this work. A verbal request was made by our investigators for security camera footage to help obtain this information; however, they were informed the footage was overwritten. The absence of those records will complicate the NTSB's investigation moving forward."

A Boeing spokesperson told Ars today that under the company's standard practice, "video recordings are maintained on a rolling 30-day basis" before being overwritten. The NTSB's preliminary report on the investigation said the airplane was delivered to Alaska Airlines on October 31, 2023, after a repair in a Boeing factory. On January 5, the plane was forced to return to Portland International Airport in Oregon when a passenger door plug blew off the aircraft during flight. ...

I have an opinion here...

... "video recordings are maintained on a rolling 30-day basis" before being overwritten. ...

My first impression is, what is Boeing trying to hide with such a short retention policy for such critical safety-related videos?

I mean, I retain images of my driveway for more than 30-days.

And I have a follow-up question -- what were the reasons why that short retention policy was put into place?

As I said, my opinion....

@#3 ... That is not unusual. ...

I'd say it depends upon the criticality of the industry.

A major player in the airplane industry retaining such documentation for only 30 days indicates to me that something might be covered up. And, given the current incident, I can see why such short retention might be a corporate policy.

Why wouldn't they want to retain such video (or other records) for a longer period?

@#5 ... Its a security video, not quality control. ...

All the more reason to have a longer retention period.

Boeing builds airplanes.

Security of the manufacturing facilities should be first and foremost.

Until and unless that occurs, anything else is moot.

So, my first question would be... why save the security videos for only 30 days.?

The answer to that question would speak volumes about how Boeing looks at the security of their manufacturing facilities.

Unfortunately for Boeing, the current evidence apparently seems to point towards a company that is more concerned about saving money than safety.

@#7 ... In my experience most, security breaches are discovered well before 30 days. ...

Yeah, but as we are seeing here, investigations that could use those videos may (and usually) take place after 30 days.

So there does seem to be a reason to over-write the security video for some companies.

I mean, 18TB of disk space for $350?

... Also in my experience, the videos are usually pretty useless anyway due to distance, bad angle or lousy frame rates. ...

Current video is quite good.

Indeed, the security footage of my driveway is 1080-HD.

And the current video compression algorithms do an impressive job of preserving the detail.

So, all this leads me back to my current question...

For an industry as critical to public safety as Boeing seems to be, why the lackadaisical attitude towards security?

I mean, 18TB of disk space for $350?

It does not seem to be a monetary problem.

It does not seem to be a technical problem.

So, then, why does Boeing seem to have such poor (abysmal?) security for their manufacturing process.

And, for the record, it is not just security video. From the article...

... "Boeing has informed us that they are unable to find the records documenting this work. ...

Boeing cannot find records documenting their work.

Wow.

Let that sink in.

Boeing cannot find records documenting their work.

imo, this is not looking good.

Yeah, the next time I fly, I want to be on a Boeing plane.

Not.

@#9 ... The security video is a red herring. ...

Possibly, but also indicative of a larger problem.