New Boeing whistleblower alleges faulty airplane parts may have been used on jets

A new whistleblower report alleges that some defective airplane parts may have been used in Boeing jets. This comes as the company faces a number of safety and quality concerns, including an exploding door panel Alaska Airlines plane in full flight in January.

The new complaint is from Boeing employee Sam Mohawk, who claims that when Boeing restarted production of the 737 Max after two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019, there was “a 300% increase” in reports about parts not meeting standards. from the manufacturer.

Although these parts were to be removed from production and monitored closely, the report alleges that “the 737 program was missing hundreds of nonconforming parts.”

“Mohawk feared that non-conforming parts were being installed on the 737s and this could lead to a catastrophic event,” according to the report.

Boeing’s outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun is scheduled to testify Tuesday before the Senate on Capitol Hill.

The document also states that when Boeing learned of a pending FAA inspection last June, many parts were moved to another location to “intentionally conceal improperly stored parts from the FAA.”

“We received this document on Monday evening and are reviewing the claims,” Boeing said in a statement. “We continually encourage employees to report all concerns as our priority is to ensure the safety of our aircraft and the flying public.”

In April, Boeing Whistleblowersincluding Sam Salehpour, the company’s quality engineer, testified to lawmakers about safety issues.

“Despite what Boeing employees publicly state, there is no safety culture at Boeing, and employees like me who speak out about defects in their production activities and lack of quality control are ignored, sidelined, threatened, marginalized and worse ,” he told members of an investigative panel of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Boeing denied Salehpour’s claims and said in a statement: “A 787 can operate safely for at least 30 years before needing expanded airframe maintenance routines. Extensive and rigorous airframe testing and heavy maintenance checks of nearly 700 Airplanes in service to date have found no evidence of airframe fatigue.”

Calhoun is also expected, during his testimony, to outline steps Boeing is taking to make improvements, including its security and quality action plan recently presented to the FAA, and tell senators that Boeing’s culture is “far from perfect, but we are taking action and making progress.”

“Boeing has adopted a broken safety culture of shutting up, not talking when it comes to its employees reporting problems, and this type of retaliation is a recipe for disaster,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut.

Boeing company leaders met with federal regulators in May to discuss safety and quality issues.

“We reviewed Boeing’s roadmap to establish a new safety standard and emphasized that they must follow through with corrective actions and effectively transform their safety culture,” said FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker. “For the FAA’s part, we will ensure that it does and that its solutions are effective. This does not mark the end of our increased oversight of Boeing and its suppliers, but it sets a new standard for how Boeing does business.”

Calhoun will step down by the end of this year; a new CEO has not been named.