First modification:
Added to the most recent safety incidents at the American aeronautical giant Boeing is the complaint of a former employee according to which the company dismissed safety and quality concerns in the production of the 787 and 777 aircraft.
Three of the four commercial aircraft models manufactured by Boeing officially entered an investigation by the US Civil Aviation Regulatory Agency for safety problems.
These are the 737 models, the favorite of the American group, as well as the 787 Dreamliner and the 777.
The safety crisis at the world's second largest aircraft manufacturer worsened with the explosion, on January 5, of a panel covering an emergency door on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX-9.
Added to the list of incidents on Monday, April 8, was another airplane of the same model 737 from the Southwest Airlines company, which lost the cover of one of its engines, which detached and hit the wing during takeoff in Denver, Colorado. .
The US Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a Boeing whistleblower's claims that the company dismissed safety and quality concerns in the production of the planemaker's 787 and 777 jets, an agency spokesperson said https://t.co/2k9eLqbWUL
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 10, 2024
The events will be investigated by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) along with the complaint of engineer Sam Salehpour, who claimed to have been subject to retaliation after identifying engineering problems that affected the structural integrity of the planes. .
Specifically, the former employee claimed that he received threats and was excluded from high-level meetings after reporting that Boeing used shortcuts to reduce bottlenecks during the assembly of the 787, according to the complaint filed by his lawyers.
“I literally saw people jumping on the pieces of the plane to align them,” he said in a conference call with journalists, quoted by the Reuters agency.
“Voluntary reporting without fear of retaliation is a critical component of aviation safety,” the FAA said.
Boeing halted deliveries of the 787 widebody aircraft for more than a year, until August 2022, while the FAA investigated quality issues and manufacturing defects.
Boeing wiped out billions of dollars
Safety problems with its planes have not only undermined Boeing's reputation. The company has also undertaken a management restructuring, US regulators have put the brakes on its production and deliveries fell by half in March.
From a stock market point of view, its stock has erased a third of its stock market value so far this year. At the beginning of 2024, its market capitalization was almost $160 billion, while today it is worth $50 billion less.
This Tuesday, April 9 alone, the company's share on Wall Street lost almost 2% to $178.
Boeing's critical situation began in October 2018, when Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff, killing all 189 occupants.
A few months later, on March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 suffered an accident under similar circumstances. All 157 people traveling on the plane died in the accident.
These two accidents caused dozens of countries to ban 737 aircraft flights.
With Reuters, EFE and local media
#Economy #Boeing #faces #investigation #safety #failures