Boeing defends its planes’ safety ahead of whistleblower hearing
CNN
Boeing on Monday scrambled to address safety and quality concerns about its planes ahead of a whistleblower hearing in the Senate on Wednesday.
Boeing on Monday scrambled to address safety and quality concerns about its planes ahead of a whistleblower hearing in the Senate on Wednesday. A briefing for journalists came in the wake of reports last week that the Federal Aviation Administration is looking into allegations raised by Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour that Boeing took shortcuts when manufacturing its 777 and 787 Dreamliner jets and that risk of catastrophic failure will increase as the planes age. Salehpour is set to be the key witness at a Wednesday hearing of the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations. Boeing, which has seen its once pristine reputation for safety and engineering quality badly diminished recently, held the briefing Monday to try to pre-emptively answer Salehpour, although the executives said they wouldn’t comment directly on his allegations. Boeing has faced more than five years of questions about the safety and quality of its commercial jets following two fatal crashes of a different model, the 737 Max, in 2018 and 2019. Those crashes killed 346 people and led to a 20-month grounding of that jet. It came under renewed scrutiny earlier this year after a door plug blew out on an 737 Max flight by Alaska Airlines on January 5, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the jet. That has sparked investigations and allegations that some Boeing employees felt reluctant to raise questions about the safety of the planes they are building or inspecting for fear of retaliation. While Salehpour charged last week that Boeing employees are scared to speak up about problems at factories, Boeing says the number of employee tips about quality and safety issues — as well as improvement ideas — has “exploded” since the Alaska Air incident. January and February submissions already equal the number of submissions for all of 2023, according to the company.
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