The entire safety culture at airplane manufacturer
Boeing is being questioned as the U.S. Senate conducts congressional
hearings into the beleaguered company.
The hearings are
being conducted by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security &
Governmental Affairs' Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Whistleblower and Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour
was among those who testified.
"I have
analyzed Boeing's own data to conclude that the company is taking manufacturing
shortcuts on the 787 program that may significantly reduce the airplane safety
and the lifecycle," Salehpour testified.
He went on to
explain that there are problems in the fuselage of the 787 and that it might
fall apart in midair. But Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines, which is one
of the biggest buyers of Boeing airplanes, said he did not believe that the
model was unsafe.
But the Boeing
employee said he had a front-row view of the assembly.
"I
literally saw people jumping on the pieces of the airplane to get them to
align," said Salehpour about the 777 production line. "I call it the
Tarzan effect."
Salehpour
claimed he was sidelined and told to "shut up" and that his boss told
him that he would have "killed someone" who said what Salehpour said.
Boeing 787. (Photo Credit: Florence Piot / Adobe Stock)
The Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating his claims, which have also been refuted
by Boeing.
"In 13
years of service, the global 787 fleet has safely transported more than 850
million passengers on more than 4.2 million flights," Boeing said in a
statement. "A 787 can safely operate for at least 30 years before needing
expanded airframe maintenance routines. Extensive and rigorous testing of the
fuselage and heavy maintenance checks of nearly 700 in-service airplanes to
date have found zero evidence of airframe fatigue."
"Under FAA oversight, we have
painstakingly inspected and reworked airplanes and improved production quality
to meet exacting standards that are measured in the one-hundredths of an inch. The 777 fleet has safely flown more than 3.9 billion passengers around the
world" and "remains the most successful widebody airplane family in
aviation history."
The company
added that retaliatory measures within Boeing are prohibited.
Boeing has been
under severe criticism and scrutiny ever since the January 5 incident in which
a door plug blew off an Alaska Airlines plane in midair. It has since prompted
investigations not only by the FAA, but by the National Transportation Safety
Board (NTSB), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Boeing has
also been accused of impeding the investigation by not providing correct
documentation, which the company said doesn’t exist anyway.
Ed Pierson,
executive director of the Foundation for Aviation Safety and a former Boeing
manager, testified "I'm not going to sugarcoat this. This is a criminal
cover-up. Records do, in fact, exist. I know this because I personally passed
them to the FBI. The world is shocked to learn about Boeing's current
production quality issues. I'm not surprised. Government authorities ignored
Boeing's manufacturing problems until the Alaska accident. Passengers shouldn't
have to rely on whistleblowers to provide the truth."
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