2024-04-09 21:25:08
Three of the four commercial aircraft models currently manufactured by the American group Boeing are officially the subject of an investigation by the American Civil Aviation Regulatory Agency.
Published on: 04/09/2024 – 11:25 p.m. Modified on: 04/10/2024 – 00:07
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The American civil aviation regulator, which has closely monitored Boeing’s favorite 737 since January, is also investigating the 787 Dreamliner and the 777, whose structural integrity has been called into question by an engineer from the aircraft manufacturer, who rejected his accusations.
These revelations come at a time when the group is going through severe turbulence due to a succession of problems with the production and operation of its aircraft for more than a year.
Regulators have identified “non-compliance” problems concerning the 737 family, and taken restrictive measures for the manufacturer to remedy them. These are now three of the four commercial aircraft models currently manufactured by the American group which are officially targeted by an investigation by the American Civil Aviation Regulatory Agency (FAA).
A hearing is scheduled in the U.S. Senate on April 17, titled “Examining Boeing’s Broken Safety Culture: Eyewitness Accounts.” This will involve addressing the “alarming and dangerous production failures” reported by the whistleblower called to testify, Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal and Republican Senator Ron Johnson said in a joint statement. When the New York Stock Exchange closed, Boeing shares fell 1.89%.
An engineer accuses
Sam Salehpour, a Boeing quality engineer, accused the manufacturer of “repeatedly ignoring serious safety and quality control concerns in the construction of the 787 and 777 aircraft,” according to a Jan. 17 letter. addressed by his lawyers to the head of the FAA, Mike Whitaker.
“Our client identified significant areas of safety concern and did everything possible to attract the attention of Boeing officials,” said lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, in this letter made public after published information at midday by the New York Times.
“Pressure”
In his alert sent to the regulator, Sam Salehpour explains having noted “shortcuts” in the Dreamliner assembly process which notably caused a “deformation of the composite materials (…), which could alter the wear performance on the long term”. According to him, more than a thousand Dreamliners in service could present this problem located at “two important junctions”.
And, regarding the 777, he claims that “new assembly procedures” implemented without carrying out “the necessary redesign of the parts concerned resulted in poor alignment of the parts”. According to him, “Boeing engineers were pressured to turn a blind eye” while this “also constitutes a serious security risk”.
According to the New York Times, this engineer, who has been with Boeing for more than ten years, claims that sections of the Dreamliner “are incorrectly attached together and could separate from each other in mid-flight after having completed thousands of flights.”
Boeing has “confidence”
Boeing rejected the accusations, saying it had “full confidence in the 787 Dreamliner,” without commenting on the 777 at this stage. “These claims about the structural integrity of the 787 are unfounded and do not represent the extensive work that Boeing has accomplished to ensure the long-term quality and safety of the aircraft,” it said in a statement.
“The reported issues were subject to a rigorous engineering review under FAA oversight,” the group continued, assuring that they presented “no safety concerns and (that) the aircraft will be(it) operational for several decades.
Deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner were suspended for almost two years, in 2021-2022, due to operational issues. Boeing assured Tuesday that the 787 was designed for 44,000 pressurization cycles – the most demanding for the fuselage -, or 44,000 flights, but having been tested up to 165,000 cycles “without signs of fatigue”. The oldest, which entered service in 2012, currently has around 16,500 flights, Boeing said.
The aircraft manufacturer has been under scrutiny since an incident on January 5 on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9, delivered in October, from which a cap holder came off in flight. The accumulation of incidents got the better of boss Dave Calhoun, who will leave at the end of 2024, and some of the group’s leaders. Dave Calhoun was appointed to turn around Boeing after the crash of two 737 MAX 8s, due to design defects, in 2018 and 2019 (346 deaths).
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