Hearing seeks insight into blowout on a Boeing jet that pilots said threw the flight into 'chaos'

Boeing factory workers say they were pressured to work too fast and asked to perform jobs that they weren’t qualified for, including opening and closing the door plug that later blew off an Alaska Airlines jet.

Those accounts from inside the company were disclosed Tuesday, as federal investigators opened a two-day hearing into the blowout, which further tarnished Boeing’s safety reputation and left it facing new legal jeopardy.

A Boeing door installer said he was never told to take any shortcuts but everyone faced pressure to keep the assembly line moving.

“That’s how mistakes are made. People try to work too fast,” he told investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board. The installer, along with other workers, was not named in probe documents.