DALLAS — Seattle Times aerospace reporter Dominic Gates reported today that a Boeing whistleblower says mechanics on the company's Renton final assembly line removed the fuselage panel that blew off an Alaska Airlines (AS) Boeing 737-9 on January 5 for repair and then reinstalled it improperly. If the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation findings corroborate this information, it would indicate that Boeing is principally responsible for the accident rather than its supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, which originally installed the panel into the 737-9 fuselage in Wichita, Kansas. The Seattle Times report would give more context to AS CEO Ben Minicucci's comments to NBC News, where he lamented that Boeing was better than this.