Boeing whistleblower: ‘Absolutely’ a culture of retaliation

A Boeing whistleblower told a Senate committee on Wednesday that he was silenced and threatened after raising concerns about gaps in the airline giant’s manufacturing process.

Sam Salehpour, a quality engineer at Boeing, alleged that the airline giant retaliated against him after he raised concerns that parts of the fuselage of the company’s 787 Dreamliner were incorrectly cast, which could cause the plane to break in half. flight after a long period of use. .

“In its rush to resolve production bottlenecks, Boeing ran into problems, jamming parts together with excessive force to make it appear that the gaps don’t exist, even though they do,” Salehpour said. “In fact, the gap has not disappeared and this could result in premature fatigue failure. Effectively, they are launching defective planes.”

The allegations hit the already embattled airline maker, which faces multiple investigations from regulators and lawmakers after the door lid of a 737 Max 9 plane exploded shortly after an Alaska Airlines flight took off on Jan. 5.

Boeing CEO David Calhoun was invited to testify alongside the whistleblower, but did not attend the hearing.

After consistently raising the manufacturing issue with Boeing, Salehpour says he was isolated, reassigned and threatened.

“I want to make it clear that I raised these issues over three years. I ignored. I was told not to create delays. I was told bluntly to shut up,” Salehpour said.

When Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) asked if he believed there was a culture of retaliation at Boeing, Salehpour said “absolutely.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations, displayed a photo of a tire punctured by a screw, which he said Salehpour provided as an example of the retaliation and threats that faced.

Although Salehpour said he has no hard evidence, he believes the tire went flat while he was at work. Salehpour said that when he replaced the tire, he was told that the bolt did not retract during “normal driving.”

Salehpour also said his boss told him he would have “killed someone” who said what he said in a meeting, and called him incessantly on his personal phone. He also said he was blocked from documenting problems and sharing information with subject matter experts.

“There are serious and growing allegations that Boeing has a broken safety culture and a set of practices that are unacceptable,” Blumenthal said, noting that the subcommittee has launched a bipartisan inquiry and hopes that both Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (Federal Aviation Administration) FAA) appear before the Committee.

Boeing did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill. But a Boeing spokesperson previously told The Hill that the company “understands the Subcommittee’s important oversight responsibilities and we are cooperating with this investigation. We have offered to provide documents, testimony and technical instructions and are in discussions with the Subcommittee about next steps.”

Ed Pierson, executive director of the Aviation Safety Foundation and a former Boeing manager, told the committee that the blame lies in part with the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the independent agency responsible for investigating transportation accidents. .

“The gold standard is now fool’s gold because the only thing that is more dangerous than a dangerous environment is the illusion of a safe environment,” Pierson said.

Pierson alleged that agencies ignored Boeing’s manufacturing problems until the Alaska Airlines incident, claiming that the NTSB relies on Boeing employees to provide technical assistance in accident investigations.

The FAA is investigating Boeing

The FAA is investigating Boeing, and an agency spokesperson pointed out that FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said “this will not return to business as usual for Boeing.”

“The company must commit to real, deep improvements, and we will hold it accountable every step of the way,” the FAA spokesperson told The Hill. “We will continue our aggressive oversight of Boeing and ensure the company comprehensively addresses the findings of our recent audit and the recommendations of the ODA expert panel.”

In February, the FAA published a scathing report by a panel of aviation experts that criticized Boeing’s “inadequate” and “confusing” safety culture and offered 50 recommendations to bring about critical changes.

“Procedures and training are complex and in a constant state of change, creating employee confusion, especially among different work locations and employee groups,” and there is “a lack of awareness of safety-related metrics” across all company levels, according to the report.

The Hill has reached out to the NTSB for comment.

“The good news is that Boeing employees and these agencies can overcome poor leadership, we need them to succeed,” Pierson said. “They are highly capable, they need to be supported and encouraged, and these problems can be solved. But it all starts with telling the truth.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the subcommittee’s ranking member, said that while he didn’t want to “scare what you know of the American public” and wanted the “public to be confident about getting on a plane,” the “testimony It’s more than worrying.”

Pierson had a more dire message: “Unless action is taken and leaders are held accountable, every person who boards a Boeing plane is at risk.”

Updated at 1:45 p.m.