- The FAA said Monday it was investigating Boeing amid reports that employees failed to perform checks on the 787.
- An internal Boeing memo says some workers recorded themselves completing a test they did not perform.
- The tests focused on the connection between the wings and the fuselage of the 787 Dreamliner.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating whether Boeing employees may have falsified safety records for the 787 Dreamliner, adding to the manufacturer’s woes as it faces regulatory scrutiny.
In a statement Monday, the FAA said Boeing voluntarily reported that it may not have properly performed quality inspections on the wing-fuselage connection of some 787s.
“The FAA is investigating whether Boeing performed the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified the aircraft’s records,” the statement said.
No aircraft are expected to be taken out of service, and Boeing said the disruption “did not create an immediate flight safety concern.”
The investigation comes after Scott Stocker, head of the 787 manufacturing program, released an internal memo on April 29 saying the company had found that several employees had not performed required testing.
Stocker’s memo, seen by Business Insider, said a Boeing employee noticed an “irregularity in a required compliance test when joining wing bodies” and reported it to his manager.
“After receiving the report, we quickly looked into the matter and learned that several individuals had violated company policies by not performing a required test, but recording the work as completed,” Stocker wrote .
Stocker added that Boeing had taken “swift and serious corrective action” against those who violated the procedure and would discuss with several teams how to prevent the problem from recurring.
In response to BI’s questions, a Boeing spokesperson said the company had informed the FAA and that “this was not an immediate flight safety issue for the in-service fleet.”
Boeing staff will need to restart testing on the remaining 787s in production, likely leading to further delivery delays from its factory in Charleston, South Carolina. This could create new problems for customers, with American Airlines already saying on May 1 that it was cutting some flights because it was not receiving enough 787s.
The planemaker is facing intense regulatory pressure after a door plug on a 737 Max exploded in mid-flight in January, prompting the FAA to order the grounding of more than 170 of the planes. . An administration report later revealed that Boeing’s 737 Max production has since failed 33 of 89 audits.
The door jam incident reignited scrutiny of Boeing and its 737s, which initially faced safety concerns after two crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed a combined 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
The backlash has prompted the company to recalibrate its factories and delivery plans, with Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun saying the manufacturer should recognize “our mistake” and restore its safety track record.
In its first-quarter 2024 report, Boeing said it burned through $3.9 billion in cash, compared to $786 million in the same period last year.
Several former Boeing employees turned company whistleblowers have raised concerns about production of the 787 Dreamliner, alleging that the manufacturer prioritized profit over quality.
A whistleblower, Sam Salehpour, said in April that he had observed “shortcuts used by Boeing to reduce bottlenecks during the 787 assembly process”, in a context of “scheduling rather than safety”. Boeing has denied his claims.
Another former employee, John Barnett, criticized 787 production for years and said he observed problems with the deployment of oxygen masks on jets, which he said were not properly addressed.
Barnett was scheduled to give a deposition in a whistleblower case against Boeing, but was found dead in March with what authorities said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Joshua Dean, a former employee of Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems who blamed the company for quality problems, died Wednesday after a sudden illness.
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