Boeing’s year from hell could soon get worse. On Tuesday, a whistleblower named Sam Salehpour alleged in a press conference that the plane manufacturer has been taking shortcuts for years in order to meet production goals.
Salehpour, who has worked at Boeing since 2007, claimed that the fuselage of some 787 Dreamliners has been improperly fastened together — a flaw that could cause the plane to tear open in air after thousands of flights. He also alleged that Boeing employees sometimes applied “excessive stress” to important airplane joints to make it seem as if gaps between the metal parts were not there. Salephour said that by doing this, Boeing could make planes more quickly, though it would also shorten their lifespan.
Salehpour worked as a quality engineer who was responsible for investigating defects and coming up with strategies to avoid them in the production line, according to his attorney. He claimed that when he brought his concerns to higher-ups at the company, he was ignored, and that supervisors then left him out of important meetings and reassigned him to the company’s 777 program. (While working on that model, he said, he saw workers misalign parts as well.) Salehpour alleged that one supervisor even threatened him with physical violence as he continued to raise his concerns. When Alaska Airlines Flight 261 blew open in January, Salehpour went to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is now investigating his claims.
So far in 2024, Boeing’s issues have mostly been limited to the 737 Max, the model whose sometimes-fatal problems have plagued the company for years. After a Max model blew open in early January, Boeing failed dozens of FAA audits of its manufacturing process with regulators claiming that many of Boeing’s engineers did not understand their own quality-control rules. In March, CEO Dave Calhoun announced he would resign at the end of the year.
Boeing has denied Salehpour’s assertions about the Dreamliner, which debuted for commercial service in 2011. The company also stated that it has addressed concerns with the production of the plane and that it is cooperating with the FAA inquiry. Last month, a quality manager turned whistleblower who came forward in 2021 to address concerns about the 787 Dreamliner was found dead of an apparent suicide. Salehpour is expected to testify before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations next week.
