Senate panel to probe Boeing amid new safety claims over 787 Dreamliner

A Senate subcommittee will hold a hearing next Wednesday into Boeing’s safety culture as the aerospace giant grapples with new allegations that another one of its premier aircraft may not be safe to fly.

The New York Times on Tuesday reported that the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a whistleblower's claims that the widebody 787 Dreamliner could potentially break apart because of improperly assembled parts of the plane’s main body. An engineer, Sam Salehpour, came forward with the allegations, detailed in the Times’ report, stating the plane’s fuselage parts do not all fit together because they were manufactured by different entities and are forced together under substandard procedures.

During a call Tuesday with reporters from publications including POLITICO, Salehpour said he was raising the alarm "not because I want Boeing to fail, but because I want it to succeed and prevent the crashes from happening."

Boeing has faced intense scrutiny since a January incident in which a door plug blew off mid-flight on a Boeing 737 MAX jet flown by Alaska Airlines. The company is under investigation by the Justice Department and other agencies.

Boeing said in a statement that claims made 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.”

The FAA declined to comment on the allegations, but said the agency “thoroughly investigates all reports.”

Debra Katz, Salehpour’s attorney and partner at Katz Banks Kumin, said Salehpour witnessed “shortcuts taken by Boeing” during the assembly process, mainly with gaps between pieces of the 787 fuselage.

Salehpour said the company “push[ed] the pieces together with force to make it appear that the gap didn't exist."

Boeing said it is confident in the safety of the Dreamliner plane.

“The issues raised have been subject to rigorous engineering examination under FAA oversight,” the company said. “This analysis has validated that these issues do not present any safety concerns and the aircraft will maintain its service life over several decades."

Salehpour called Boeing’s response “baseless” and “alarming.”

Katz said similar problems could extend to Boeing’s 777 program, which Salehpour said he witnessed after he was involuntarily transferred to that aircraft program. Boeing declined to address claims related to the 777.

Last year, Boeing said it might need to slow some of its Dreamliner deliveries because of improperly sized shimming, which is the material fitting that fills gaps on the aircraft’s surface. Attorneys on Wednesday said the issues persisted, as Salehpour witnessed, and were not rectified despite the company's claims to the contrary.

Salehpour said he has been providing information to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who is spearheading next week’s hearing of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, dubbed, “Examining Boeing’s Broken Safety Culture: Firsthand Accounts.” A witness list has not been made public.

Blumenthal, alongside Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), requested information from both the FAA and Boeing last month after receiving information from Salehpour. The subcommittee said it has also asked Boeing CEO David Calhoun for materials ahead of the hearing and requested that he testify.

Salehpour will also provide documentation and testify at the hearing, Katz said.

Salehpour — currently employed by Boeing — reported his concerns about both aircraft to Boeing officials over a three-year period “to no avail" and experienced retaliation by his direct supervisor and Boeing senior management, was threatened with termination and excluded from important meetings, Katz said.

A company spokesperson said in its statement that “retaliation is strictly prohibited at Boeing.”

"We continue to monitor these issues under established regulatory protocols and encourage all employees to speak up when issues arise,” the spokesperson said.

The latest scrutiny of Boeing, some aviation analysts say, is an extension of issues that came to light after two fatal crashes of the 737 MAX 8 involving foreign carriers five years ago. Boeing’s critics allege the aerospace giant has been unable to make headway in fixing its systemic quality control problems or tighten its manufacturing processes.

Boeing’s Dreamliner, like its 737 MAX counterpart, has not been without its setbacks. Early flight operations of the Dreamliner spurred incidents with lithium-ion batteries that were susceptible to overheating and subsequent fire on board the aircraft. The FAA grounded the 787s in 2013 until it approved a certification fix later that year.

Boeing on Tuesday added that based on the previous fuselage testing and “extensive data gathering, testing, modeling and analysis from 2020 to today,” which the FAA was looped into, the company “currently expects these issues will not change or affect the expected lifespan of the 787 fuselages.”

Katz, meanwhile, alleged that the FAA has relayed its concern — and interviewed Salehpour — because officials were unaware that the shimming issue has remained unresolved.