In the latest disturbing twist of the Boeing sagaThe company admitted to falsifying records related to the inspection of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The company made this public announcement after it was revealed that another federal investigation had been opened against the company.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it is conducting a new investigation into the embattled plane maker – this one focused on whether records related to the company’s 787 Dreamliner had been falsified, as first reported by the Federal Aviation Administration Wall Street Journal. Not long after, the Seattle Times reported that Boeing disclosed that employees at its assembly plant in North Charleston, South Carolina, had falsified related records.
When contacted by Gizmodo for comment, the FAA confirmed details of its investigation.
“The FAA opened an investigation into Boeing after the company voluntarily told us in April that it may have failed to perform the necessary inspections to confirm adequate bonding and grounding at the point where the wings connect to the fuselage of certain 787 Dreamliner aircraft have not been completed,” the agency said in an emailed statement. “The FAA is investigating whether Boeing completed inspections and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records. As the investigation continues, the FAA will – as always – take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of the flying public.”
Boeing has publicly admitted that there was a falsification of documents. In a note originally shared internally at Boeing and subsequently leaked to Gizmodo, one of Boeing’s executives, Scott Stocker – the 787 vice president and general manager at one of its assembly plants in South Carolina – detailed a recent incident involving a Boeing -Teammate involved saw and reported “irregularities” at the factory. Stocker’s statement reads in part:
During a required compliance test, the teammate noticed what appeared to be an irregularity at the wing body joint. He brought it up with his supervisor, who brought it to management’s attention. I wanted to personally thank this teammate and commend him for doing the right thing. It is critically important that each of us speak up when we see something that may not look right or needs our attention.
After receiving the report, we quickly reviewed the matter and determined that several individuals had violated company policy by failing to perform a required test but instead logging the work as completed. As you all know, we do not tolerate failure to follow processes to ensure quality and safety. We immediately informed our regulator of our findings and, together with several teammates, are taking swift and serious corrective action.
Stocker added that Boeing’s “engineering team has concluded that this misconduct does not pose an immediate aviation safety concern.”
Boeing is currently the subject of various federal investigations. The company has been under intense scrutiny since a flight with Alaska Airlines in January lost part of his torso, allegedly due to a manufacturing defect. Regulators have raised questions about Boeing’s safety practices, and the company has become the focus of many critics Federal investigationas well as Control by Congress.
The company’s public relations crisis was also marred by conspiracy theories stemming from the deaths of several whistleblowers who spoke out about security problems at the company. In March, whistleblower John Barnett, a former quality control engineer at Boeing, said was found dead in a motel parking lot from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Barnett was in the process of making a legal statement against the company at the time of his death. Joshua Dean, who previously worked as a quality inspector at the plane maker’s supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, was involved in a similar legal battle with Spirit when he died last week from a fast-spreading infection.
A number of other whistleblowers have spoken out against the company, including three gave testimony before Congress At the end of last month.