Dark clouds hang over the American aviation company Boeing. A former employee of the company testified before the US Congress. In his opinion, for over 10 years Boeing has not followed procedures that would ensure full safety in the planes it produces. The matter is already being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Boeing employees and aviation experts are fighting before Congress – as they say – for the lives of passengers. Because, in their opinion, the legendary company, an icon of the American economy, has been mocking the basic standards of production of machines that transport thousands of people around the world every day since at least 2013.
– If no action is taken, no heads roll, every person boarding a Boeing aircraft will be at risk – Ed Pierson, a former Boeing employee and executive director of the Foundation for Aviation Safety, warned the Senate committee.
– I'm not here because I want to, but because I have to. I don't want to see a 787 or 777 crash. I have serious concerns about the safety of these planes, emphasized Sam Salehpour, whistleblower, quality engineer at Boeing.
Is the company cutting corners when it comes to machine production?
– Whistleblowers, including a quality engineer from Boeing, point out that the company is taking shortcuts when it comes to the production of the Dreamliner 787 or 777 aircraft – says Ivan Rodriguez of CNN about the hearing before the Senate.
This shortcut includes, among other things, unauthorized gaps in the skin of Dreamliner 787 aircraft and matching parts – as one of the company's quality controllers describes – using the “Tarzan method”.
– I literally saw people jumping on the fuselage of the plane to match the parts. I call it the Tarzan effect, Salephour reported.
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The company's management defends the safety of the planes, citing, among other things, numbers. Boeing's statement states that the Dreamliner has safely transported 850 million passengers since the beginning of its career.
“The Boeing 787 will be able to fly safely for at least 30 years before requiring extended skin maintenance procedures. Extensive and rigorous fuselage testing and intensive inspections of nearly 700 aircraft in service have revealed no evidence of airframe fatigue,” read a statement from Boeing of April 17. The matter is extremely serious. Reports about The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating irregularities at Boeing. On January 5 this year, shortly after take-off of the new 737 MAX plane, the emergency door broke off and was attached – as it turned out – with an insufficient number of screws. In April, another plane – a Boeing 737 – lost its engine cover during take-off. All this adds up to an increasingly worse image of the company.
Boeing has been facing allegations for five years
– I will speak directly. When you try to increase productivity without adequate resources, with poor financial-focused management and a lack of inspectors on the production line, you always put safety at risk. This cannot be reconciled, says Dr. Shawn Pruchnicki, an aviation expert and professor of engineering at Ohio State University. Boeing has been facing allegations and questions for over 5 years. It started with two 737 MAX crashes, which killed a total of 346 people. Since the beginning of the year, the company's shares have fallen by more than 30 percent the company's CEO announced his departure. It turned out that he earned $32 million last year – half as much as in 2022.
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Main photo source: CNN