The air is slowly becoming thinner for Boeing: whistleblowers testified about the aircraft manufacturer before the US Senate - and made serious allegations.
Washington, DC - The negative headlines about aircraft manufacturer Boeing just don't stop. Four whistleblowers recently testified before an investigative committee in the US Senate and made serious allegations. Engineer Sam Salehpour said the company knowingly allowed errors in the production of the Dreamliner and ignored safety concerns.
“Life and death”: Whistleblower warned Boeing about gaps in aircraft
“I was told to shut up,” Salehpour told senators on Wednesday (April 17). The company has always rejected the allegations. Before the Senate, the whistleblower pointed out technical problems that affected the structural integrity of the aircraft. Boeing is also said to have used an abbreviated process to reduce bottlenecks in 787 assembly. As a result, tiny gaps in the material were not sufficiently filled.
When flying at an altitude of more than ten kilometers, the diameter of a human hair could be the difference between “life and death,” the engineer told the Standing Subcommittee, and could lead to “unsafe conditions of the aircraft with potentially catastrophic accidents.” “Kicking me out of the program because I raise safety concerns helps no one,” a senator quoted him as saying in a 2021 memo.
Allegations against Boeing: Aircraft manufacturer apparently ignored safety concerns
According to a letter from Salehpour's lawyers to the FAA in January, he pointed out "significant" safety deficiencies in almost 1,500 aircraft. According to the whistleblower, “Boeing engineers were pressured to close their eyes.” After his warnings about the Dreamliner 787, Salehpour was sanctioned by being transferred against his will from the department responsible for that model to the 777 program, the letter said. Salehpour also discovered defects in the assembly of the 777 model.
Boeing denied the allegations. The company carried out basic maintenance on its 787 jets in use and discovered no damage. The FAA also said in a statement that every aircraft used met the agency's standards.
According to Boeing officials, the 737 Max was not safe
In addition to Salehpour, two former engineers from Boeing and the FAA and a former pilot were also heard. “I did everything I could to tell the world that the Max is still not safe and to warn the authorities about the dangers (...),” said former Boeing executive Ed Pierson A look at the 737 Max model. As long as no action is taken and those responsible are not held accountable, “every person who boards a Boeing is at risk.” Pierson also accused the FAA of being “inefficient and reactive.”
Boeing has struggled with quality problems and manufacturing defects on some models. At the beginning of January, a part of the cabin wall behind which the emergency exit is located fell out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX-9 shortly after take-off from Portland at an altitude of almost five kilometers. It then turned out that four bolts were missing from the cabin door. The US aviation safety authority had drawn conclusions from this and set an upper limit for new jets of this type and also imposed a deadline on Boeing to solve the problems.
With material from AFP and Reuters