admin
Boeing Co faces a deepening crisis of confidence after an engineer at the US planemaker alleged the company took manufacturing shortcuts on its 787 Dreamliner aircraft in order to ease production bottlenecks of its most advanced airliner.
Factory workers wrongly measured and filled gaps that can occur when airframe segments of the 787 are joined together, according to Sam Salehpour, a long-time Boeing employee who made his concerns public on Tuesday. That assembly process could create “significant fatigue” in the composite material of the barrel sections and impair the structural integrity of more than 1 000 of the widebody jets in service, he said.
Salehpour, who according to his attorneys at Katz Banks Kumin in Washington worked on the 787 from 2020 through early 2022, said the issues he described “may dramatically reduce the life of the plane”.
Boeing disputes the allegations.
“In a mad rush to reduce the backlog of the planes and get them to market, Boeing did not follow its own engineering requirements,” the engineer said on a conference call with reporters and his lawyers.
The claims risk opening another flank at the embattled planemaker, which is already facing intense scrutiny of its manufacturing and quality practices since a fuselage panel blew off a nearly new 737 Max 9 shortly after take-off on January 5.
The allegations now extend the spotlight to the Dreamliner, a critical source of cash for Boeing as 737 output remains muted under close oversight by the US Federal Aviation Administration.
After the allegations were made public, Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, announced that he had asked Boeing’s departing chief executive officer Dave Calhoun to appear at an April 17 subcommittee hearing called to examine the planemaker’s safety culture. Calhoun last month announced that he’s stepping down by the end of the year, part of a wider management shake-up in the wake of the January 5 accident.
“Boeing understands the important oversight responsibilities of the subcommittee and we are cooperating with this inquiry,” the company said, when asked if Calhoun or other executives planned to testify. “We have offered to provide documents, testimony and technical briefings, and are in discussions with the subcommittee regarding next steps.”
In separate statements, Boeing disputed Salehpour’s account.
The company noted it had halted 787 deliveries for nearly two years earlier this decade under close FAA supervision after it found a spate of tiny structural imperfections in the joints where the carbon-fibre barrel sections are bolted together. – Bloomberg
Online Reporter