In what could be a very serious charge, a whistleblower has claimed that there are structural flaws in Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, which could eventually cause it to break apart mid-flight, India Today reported on Thursday. The whistleblower said this after the air safety body of the US - the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) - announced a probe into his claims about the Dreamliners.
The New York Times reported that the FAA is investigating claims by a Boeing engineer, Sam Salehpour, that "sections of the fuselage of the 787 Dreamliner are improperly fastened together and could break apart mid-flight after thousands of trips".
Engineer Sam Salehpour, who has worked at Boeing for more than 10 years, told NYT that changes to the manufacturing process introduced shortcuts that could lead to parts of the fuselage (the main part of the plane) failing after thousands of flights. He said the plane's fuselage comes in several large pieces from different manufacturers that are fastened together on an assembly line.
Before this, in 2019, other Boeing workers in the Charleston, South Carolina, factory (where the 787 is built) said they were rushing to finish planes and their safety worries were ignored. One of the whistleblowers, a quality checker named John Barnett, was found dead in March while suing Boeing over safety concerns he raised at the 787 factory. Even though he's dead, a legal expert says his case can still continue, reported the NYT.
Salehpour has sent his concerns to both the FAA and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Boeing has been grappling with a safety crisis following a January 5 mid-air panel blowout on a 737 MAX plane.
Sam Salehpour's allegations stem from work on the company's widebody 787 and 777 jets, according to Reuters. The engineer said he faced retaliation, such as threats and exclusion from meetings, after he identified engineering problems that affected the structural integrity of the jets, and claimed Boeing employed shortcuts to reduce bottlenecks during 787 assembly, his attorneys said.
Boeing halted deliveries of the 787 widebody jet for more than a year until August 2022 as the FAA investigated quality problems and manufacturing flaws.
In 2021, Boeing said some 787 airplanes had shims that were not the proper size and some aircraft had areas that did not meet skin-flatness specifications. A shim is a thin piece of material used to fill tiny gaps in a manufactured product.
Boeing in a statement said it was fully confident in the 787 Dreamliner, adding that the claims "are inaccurate and do not represent the comprehensive work Boeing has done to ensure the quality and long-term safety of the aircraft."
Salehpour observed shortcuts used by Boeing to reduce bottlenecks during the 787 assembly process that placed "excessive stress on major airplane joints, and embedded drilling debris between key joints on more than 1,000 planes," his lawyers said as per Reuters.
The engineer said he saw problems with misalignment in the production of the 777 widebody jet which were remedied by using force. "I literally saw people jumping on the pieces of the airplane to get them to align," he said.
The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) said Salehpour is a member who works at Boeing's plant in Everett, Washington.
The FAA in August 2022 approved the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner for delivery since 2021 after the manufacturer made inspection and retrofit changes needed to meet certification standards. There are currently about 1,100 Dreamliners in service, Boeing said.
(With inputs from Reuters)