The US aviation regulator said it would “investigate whether Boeing carried out the inspections and whether company officials may have falsified documents related to the aircraft.”
The United States air regulator has opened an investigation intopossible security flaws on the 787 Dreamliner aircraft, following complaints from a former engineer at the North American aircraft manufacturer Boeing.
The United States Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) said Monday that the investigation will try to determine if the Boeing successfully carried out mandatory inspections related to to the fuselage “on certain Dreamliner787 aircraft.”
The regulator said it “will investigate whether Boeing carried out the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified documents related to the plane,” according to an email cited by the France-Presse news agency.
The investigation came after the manufacturer informed the FAA in April that it “may not have performed required inspections.”
The agency said Boeing will have to re-inspect “all 787 aircraft still in production and must also develop a plan for the in-service fleet,” but did not clarify whether the 787 Dreamliners already in operation should be recalled for inspection. .
The regulator gave the company three months to come up with a plan to resolve “systematic quality control issues.”
In mid-April, the U.S. Congress held a hearing on allegations by a former Boeing engineer that about 1,400 of the company’s planes had major safety flaws.
Sam Salehpour allegedly submitted documents to the FAA alleging that the fuselage of the 787 Dreamliner was poorly assembled and was at risk of breaking in mid-flight, due to changes Boeing made in the process of joining the different parts of the fuselage.
Boeing will be investigated for safety failures, after complaints about the 777 and 787 models
The aircraft manufacturer, which is already facing a serious crisis arising from serious quality problems with the 737 MAX aircraft, denied that the production changes have had a negative impact on the safety of the 787 Dreamliner.
In March, another former Boeing employee, John Barnett, who had reported alleged misconduct at the factory where the 787 Dreamliner is produced, committed suicide.
Boeing whistleblower found dead in US during legal action against aviation company
The new FAA investigation joins others already begun in the production process of the 737 MAX.
In late March, Boeing’s senior advisor, David Calhounappointed in 2020 to solve the problems, announced that he will leave office at the end of the year, after a series of incidents with several models.
The most serious occurred in January, when a panel covering the space of an emergency door of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max-9 detached shortly after takeoff.
The incident, which caused no injuries, began a series of new investigations into Boeing operations by the FAA, which discovered serious irregularities.
Boeing had a loss of 343 million dollars (almost 321 million euros) in the first quarter, even lower than in the same period in 2023.
Source: Observadora
