(UnitedHeadlines.com) – A former Boeing engineer who worked on the 787 Dreamliner jet is speaking out, stating that the company ignored the safety concerns about its 777 and 787 Dreamliner jets.
According to whistleblower Sam Salehpour, who filed a complaint in January with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), several pieces of the 777 plane’s fuselage are made in separate sections by different manufacturers and do not fit together tightly. During construction of the 787, he believes composite materials had been “deformed,” and debris was left in the “interfaces,” defects which could cause the plane to fail. He claimed that to cut production costs, Boeing used shortcuts during the construction of the aircraft that would reduce the lifespan of the planes.
His attorneys, Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, said that Salehpour shared his concerns with Boeing officials, who “prioritized getting the planes to market as quickly as possible” over the safety concerns raised by Salehpour.
Boeing rejected Salehpour’s claims, saying that they “are inaccurate.”
The U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chairman, Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, and ranking member Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson stated that they would investigate Salehpour’s allegations, adding that he would testify before the committee in April. Boeing CEO David Calhoun was also asked to testify before the subcommittee.
The FAA has been investigating Boeing since a Jan. 5 incident where a door plug flew off of an Alaska Airlines flight at 16,000 feet. The FAA stated in March that “non-compliance issues” had been identified “in Boeing’s manufacturing process control.”
Salehpour is not the only Boeing whistleblower to come forward. The first Boeing whistleblower to come forward was quality manager John Barnett, who was found dead in his truck in a South Carolina hotel parking lot in March. His cause of death was ruled to be the “result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” according to the Charleston County, South Carolina Coroner’s office. However, a close family friend of Barnett told a local news outlet in South Carolina that Barnett had told her “it’s not suicide” if anything were to happen to him.
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