The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has launched yet another investigation into Boeing aircraft, following reports of irregularities and unperformed safety inspections in the production of the 787 Dreamliner.
In April, one of the manufacturer’s engineers reported irregularities with the Dreamliner production to the FAA and testified in front of a US Senate subcommittee. He said various parts that had been made in different places were being forced to fit together which meant “people jumping on the airplanes to get pieces to align”.
While that issue is still under investigation, another employee has flagged that he noticed some of his colleagues were skipping safety inspections, but reported them as completed. According to Boeing, the employee reported the issue to management and the company then “promptly informed the FAA about what we learned and are taking swift and serious corrective action with multiple” employees.
The bypassed test in question concerns bonding and grounding where the wings join the fuselage. An email sent by Scott Stocker, who leads the company’s 787 program, to employees on 29 April, quoted by Reuters, says that Boeing “quickly reviewed the matter and learned that several people had been violating Company policies by not performing a required test, but recording the work as having been completed”.
The company says it is looking into “whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records”, however “our engineering team has assessed that this misconduct did not create an immediate safety of flight issue”. So no aircraft will be taken out of service during the re-inspection process.
Since January, Boeing has been in sight of regulators as a never-ending series of accidents started at the beginning of 2024. On 5 January, a plug-in door blew out mid-air on a Boeing 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight. The FAA subsequently grounded the aircraft and launched an investigation into the incident. In the follow-up investigation, it has been revealed that Alaska Airlines pilots had flagged depressurisation problems on previous flights operated on the same plane, which had been ignored. More worryingly, the FAA has found loose bolts and even misdrilled holes in some aircraft’s fuselage. In the last update, the FAA gave Boeing 90 days to “must develop a comprehensive action plan to address its systemic quality-control issues to meet FAA’s non-negotiable safety standards.”
Meanwhile other Boeing models have also been facing problems. The windshield of a 777 cracked on 28 February and earlier this year, the nose wheel of a 757 just fell off and rolled down the runway at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Yet another wheel fell off a 777-200 on 7 March, damaging several cars in San Francisco and, on 4 March, the engine of a 737 burst into flames only minutes after take-off.
