Boeing is likely to come under fire during a US Senate hearing from a whistleblower who claims he was concerned its aircraft would crash in midair.
Sam Salehpour, an engineer, told that Boeing ignored his warnings on the 787 Dreamliner.
After many safety issues, including a mid-air panel blow-out in January, the company is being investigated.
Yet it has made an effort to defend its approach and claims to be assisting the Senate inquiry.
Salehpour spoke about the alleged safety concerns pertaining to the 787 Dreamliner before the hearing on Wednesday.
What exactly did the Boeing whistleblower say?
If manufacturing problems remain unresolved, he emphasised the concern that the plane may just “drop to the ground”. He was talking about the spaces that appeared between components when the plane was being assembled.
In response to the question of whether he would board one of the 787s with his own family, he said, “Right now, I would not.”
The New York Times published an initial account of Salehpour’s claims last week, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is now looking into them.
Boeing, among the two largest manufacturers of commercial aircraft worldwide, has refuted the engineer’s claims and reiterated that its aircraft are safe.
They stated “These claims about the structural integrity of the 787 are inaccurate. Under FAA supervision, the concerns brought up have undergone a thorough engineering assessment.”
The company stated at a previous event on Monday that testing showed “zero fatigue” and that 99% of gaps met with the norm.
In recent years, concerns have also been raised concerning the safety of Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft.
A door panel burst out in midair on a 737 Max 9, forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing returning to Portland, Oregon, where it took off in January.
While no major injuries were sustained by the passengers, the incident led to thousands of flight cancellations and increased scrutiny on Boeing, which had previously grounded the 737 Max 8 after two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019.
The Democrat senator who will preside over the meeting on Wednesday, Richard Blumenthal, called Salehpour’s claims “deeply serious.”
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) representative is among the others set to speak on Wednesday.
Although managers from Boeing are unlikely to be present, the company says it is cooperating with the legal process by offering the necessary “documents, testimony, and technical briefings”
