Summary
- A US Senate Subcomittee will hold a hearing about Boeing’s processes following whistleblower’s allegations.
- The Subcomittee’s two members requested a bunch of records from the aircraft manufacturer, including documents about the Boeing 777 and Boeing 787.
- This is another scrutiny of the aircraft manufacturer following the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 door plug blowout in January 2024.
Richard Blumenthal, the Chairman of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and Ranking Member Ron Johnson, announced that they would be conducting an inquiry into Boeing. The subcommittee will look into a whistleblower’s allegations about the safety of the manufacturer’s aircraft.
Information from a whistleblower
According to a joint statement by Blumenthal and Johnson on April 9, the subcommittee recently obtained information directly from a Boeing whistleblower who alleged alarming and dangerous manufacturing deficiencies at the plane maker.
“We write to request Boeing’s immediate cooperation with the Subcommittee’s review of these troubling allegations and Boeing’s culture of safety in light of recent incidents.”
Photo: Tada Images | Shutterstock
While the whistleblower’s allegations were not made public, the two lawmakers stated that The New York Times had published the whistleblower’s disclosures. Nevertheless, the subcommittee has requested testimony from the now-outgoing David Calhoun, the President and chief executive officer (CEO) of Boeing.
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Concerns regarding the Boeing 777 and 787
On March 19, the two Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations members wrote to Calhoun, disclosing that the subcommittee received information about safety concerns on the Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 assembly lines. According to the pair, the whistleblower is a current Boeing quality engineer, telling the subcommittee that in 2021 and 2022, they identified and reported issues with the assembly of Boeing 787s.
Photo: Boeing
Blumenthal and Johnson’s letter added that the whistleblower’s attorney wrote to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in January 2024. The two lawmakers cited the letter as saying that Boeing took shortcuts to reduce bottlenecks in the production of Boeing 787s, resulting in faulty engineering and faulty evaluation of data, allowing potentially defective parts to be installed on the aircraft of the type.
Meanwhile, the same whistleblower told Boeing’s management about potential manufacturing concerns related to the 777. Allegedly, the witness said that they found misalignments between parts in at least 400 Boeing 777 aircraft, with the attorney adding that the manufacturer has ignored their concerns. Instead, the management retaliated against the whistleblower, the attorney continued.
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Requesting records from Boeing
The letter to Calhoun said that the company’s treatment of the whistleblower raised questions about the plane maker’s commitment to aircraft safety, with the whistleblower’s testimony following several reports that questioned Boeing’s policies and practices.
As a result, in inviting Calhoun to testify in front of the subcommittee, the two lawmakers said that this would be an opportunity for Boeing to explain why, in the context of the recent safety failures, the public should feel confident about the aircraft manufacturer’s processes. In addition, the two lawmakers requested a set of records related to Boeing and its processes, including but not limited to manufacturing, quality control, assembly process, and grounding of 777 and 787 aircraft.
Photo: NTSB
According to the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, the hearing should occur on April 17, marking another public scrutiny of Boeing following the Alaska Airlines incident in January 2024. Then, as a Boeing 737 MAX 9 was climbing out of Portland International Airport (PDX), the aircraft lost its door plug, prompting a return to PDX.
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