Boeing is in trouble again. After a series of recent quality control disasters and the sudden death of two whistleblowers, it now faces new investigatory efforts by US regulators. At issue is the aircraft manufacturer’s admission that it may have failed to properly conduct quality control inspections on its 787 Dreamliner airplanes.
The United States’ Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a statement saying that it was now conducting an investigation into whether Boeing’s company employees falsified aircraft records regarding the inspections, and whether the required inspections were completed at all.
While the investigation is underway, the regulator is requiring Boeing employees to re-inspect all Dreamliners that have yet to be delivered to airlines. They are further requiring the company to develop a plan to deal with the matter with regards to planes that are already in commercial service.
According to the FAA, in April Boeing informed the agency on its own initiative that the inspection failures may have occurred. They further told the FAA that the inspections in question were those which are conducted to confirm that adequate grounding and bonding was done at the junction of the wings to the fuselage on the 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
Scott Stocker, the Boeing executive in charge of the 787 program, circulated an internal memo to other executives saying that the problem as reported to him by an employee. He characterized the alleged failure as “misconduct,” but emphasized that, in his judgment, they did not constitute an immediate danger to flight safety.
The memo went on to state that Boeing had concluded that several of its employees had violated company policy by failing to perform the required tests, while logging the tests as having been properly completed. Upon discovering the issue, the memo said that the 787 team promptly alerted the FAA, and immediately began taking corrective disciplinary action with regards to the employees responsible.
Stocker further said that the company intended to “celebrate” the conduct of the employee who blew the whistle.
