Two Boeing Whistleblowers Allege Disregarded Worker Concerns, Pressure For Speed

'Federal regulators are investigating a whistleblower's claims about flaws in the assembly of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner,' NPR reported this week:

Longtime Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour went public Tuesday with claims that he observed problems with how parts of the plane's fuselage were fastened together. Salehpour warns that production 'shortcuts' could significantly shorten the lifespan of the plane, eventually causing the fuselage to fall apart in mid-flight. 'It can cause a catastrophic failure,' Salehpour said Tuesday during a press briefing to discuss his claims.

A spokesman for the FAA confirmed that the agency is investigating those allegations, which were first reported by the New York Times, but declined to comment further on them. Boeing immediately pushed back. 'These claims about the structural integrity of the 787 are inaccurate and do not represent the comprehensive work Boeing has done to ensure the quality and long-term safety of the aircraft,' Boeing spokeswoman Jessica Kowal said in a statement. 'We are fully confident in the 787 Dreamliner.'

Salehpour and his lawyers argue that Boeing has never adequately addressed production flaws discovered in 2021 (which included unacceptable gaps between the fuselage panels), according to the article. 'Instead, he says the company took 'shortcuts' by applying greater force to fit segments of the fuselage together.'

'Boeing hid the problem by pushing the pieces together with force to make it appear like that the gap didn't exist,' Salehpour told reporters at Tuesday's press briefing. Salehpour says he repeatedly raised these concerns with management, but instead of addressing them, they transferred him to work on a different plane, the 777, where he alleges he saw similar problems. 'I literally saw people jumping on the pieces of the airplane to get them to align,' he said. 'That's not how you build a plane.'
In a follow-up piece, NPR reports that former Boeing mechanic Davin Fischer 'says he spoke up — and paid a steep price for it.'
He says Boeing's leaders were constantly pushing to speed up production. 'Hey, we need to go faster, faster, faster,' Fischer said. 'They cared more about shareholders and investors than they did planes, their employees, anything.' When Fischer finally pushed back, he says he was demoted in retaliation, and then fired from the company in 2019. Fischer says many of his friends who still work at Boeing are afraid to speak out. 'People there are scared, a hundred percent,' he said. 'Because they don't want to get fired.'

NPR also cites the example of longtime quality manager John Barnett, who said in a 2019 interview with Ralph Nader that his managers at Boeing retaliated against him by docking his pay and creating a hostile environment.

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