Crisis-hit Boeing has rushed to defend itself against new allegations of poor practices from whistleblowers, as the airline continues to grapple with its latest safety crisis.
On Wednesday, a congressional investigation heard testimony about the company’s safety culture and manufacturing standards – rocked in January by a mid-flight alert that saw an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 flight suffer a crash. panel burst.
A Boeing Quality engineer Sam Salehpour told members of a Senate subcommittee that Boeing is taking shortcuts to increase production levels, which could lead to jetliners being broken.
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He said of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, which has more than 1,000 in service with airlines worldwide including British Airways, that excessive force was used to trap sections of the fuselage.
He claimed the added force could compromise the carbon composite material used for the plane’s chassis.
“They are producing defective planes,” he concluded, adding that he had been threatened when he raised his concerns on the matter.
The engineer said he studied Boeing’s own data and concluded “that the company is taking shortcuts in manufacturing the 787 program, which could significantly reduce the safety and life cycle of the aircraft.”
Boeing has denied claims about the Dreamliner’s structural integrity and that factory workers allegedly jumped on sections of the fuselage to force them into alignment.
Two Boeing technical officials said this week that its testing and inspection programs had found no signs of fatigue or cracking in the composite panels, saying they were almost immune to fatigue.
The company’s track record is coming under new scrutiny, amid criticism from regulators and safety officials following the incident aboard the Alaska Airlines plane.
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It has become a trust issue again after the worst period in Boeing’s history, when two fatal crashes, both involving MAX 8 planes, killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019.
All 737 MAX 8 planes were grounded for nearly two years while a fix for faulty flight control software was implemented.
A separate Senate Commerce committee heard Wednesday from members of a panel that found serious flaws in Boeing’s safety culture.
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One of the panel members, Javier de Luis, an aeronautics professor at MIT, said employees heard Boeing executives talk about safety, but they felt pressure to push planes through the factory as well. quickly as possible.
In speaking with Boeing workers, he said he heard “there was a very real fear of retaliation and retaliation if you stood your ground.”
Pressure on Boeing to focus on safety resulted in restrictions placed on production, thereby limiting its manufacturing output.
At the same time, it still faces three separate investigations by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Justice and the National Transportation Safety Board regarding the sign explosion.
A management reshuffle announced amid investigations will see the the general manager leaves the company by the end of the year.
Sky News has contacted British Airways for comment.
