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Boeing’s safety culture comes to public attention with two separate U.S. Senate hearings to delve into a whistleblower’s claims about shoddy assembly processes on the 787 Dreamliner, Boeing’s best-selling wide-body airplane, the 787 Dreamliner, so far has carried 875 million passengers on over 1,100 operational examples.
During the hearing, the former Boeing engineer testified that parts of the 787 Dreamliner could break in flight. Sam Salehpour, who worked on the plane’s production line in South Carolina for more than 10 years, said his concerns were “ignored” by Boeing for three years and that he was physically threatened by his bosses. He also claimed to have seen workers jumping on the parts of the plane like Tarzan to make them align and fit together. In other testimony, Ed Pierson, director of the Foundation for Aviation Safety, accused Boeing of engaging in a “criminal cover-up.”
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating Salehpour’s claims of safety problems in plane construction while Boeing is under scrutiny for a series of accidents, including the explosion of the door of a 737 Max shortly after takeoff on a Boeing flight. Alaska Airlines last January.
Boeing, one of the world‘s two main manufacturers of commercial aircraft, insists on the safety of its jets and disputes the engineer’s claims as “inaccurate” and is certain that its planes are safe. Two days before the hearing, the aerospace company hosted journalists at its 787 Dreamliner production complex in South Carolina. Steve Chisholm, Boeing’s chief engineer, has strongly denied the allegations. «We have not identified any safety problems – he declared -. We have seen nothing to indicate there is a problem with the fleet in service.” Boeing officials also rejected Salehpour’s claim that he saw workers jumping on parts of the 777 fuselage to get them aligned.
Boeing executives were not present at either hearing, although the company said it would cooperate with the hearings. Senator Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat presiding over the second session, said he expects CEO David Calhoun to appear as part of our ongoing investigation… We expect Boeing’s full cooperation with our investigation and look forward to I look forward to this testimony” he said.