Their accounts of recent events were eagerly awaited in the United States. Four whistleblowers, including an engineer and former Boeing employees, testified on Wednesday April 17 before a US Senate committee of inquiry to prevent “serious problems” in the production of Boeing 737 MAX, 787 Dreamliner and 777.
“I’m not here because I want to be here. I’m here because […] I don’t want to see the crash of a 787 or a 777,” Sam Salehpour, a quality engineer at Boeing for seventeen years, told senators, saying he had “serious concerns about the safety of the 787” and the 777.
“I was sidelined. I was told to shut up, I received physical threats,” the engineer continued. “If something happens to me, I am at peace, because I have the feeling that, by testifying openly, I will save many lives.”
A senatorial investigation
It is a letter from his lawyers, notably to the American Civil Aviation Regulatory Agency (FAA), which is at the origin of the senatorial investigation. The almost two-hour hearing was the first in a series during which officials from Boeing and the FAA will be called to testify, said Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, chairman of the commission of inquiry.
“There are more and more serious accusations that the safety culture at Boeing is broken and that its practices are unacceptable,” noted Richard Blumenthal, specifying that he had received numerous testimonies in recent days. “We know that we still have work to do and we are taking action across the group,” admitted the aircraft manufacturer after the hearing.
“Retaliation is completely prohibited at Boeing,” he assured, indicating that reports linked to production had jumped 500% since January, over one year. “We continue to put safety and quality above everything else,” insisted the group, saying it was “confident in the safety and durability of the 787 and 777.”
Quartet of whistleblowers
In addition to Sam Salehpour, the commission of inquiry also heard Ed Pierson – a former Boeing manager notably on the 737 MAX program –, Joe Jacobsen – who worked 25 years at the FAA after eleven years at Boeing – and Shawn Pruchnicki – aviation safety specialist and former airline pilot. “I did everything I could to tell the world that the MAX was still unsafe and to alert authorities to the dangers of Boeing production,” Pierson said. But “nothing changed after the two crashes”.
The 737 MAXs were grounded worldwide after two 737 MAX 8 accidents in 2018 and 2019 (346 deaths), due to design defects. “Unless action is taken and leaders are held accountable, every person boarding a Boeing is at risk,” according to Ed Pierson, who said FAA oversight was “ineffective and reactive”.
Boeing “must commit to real and profound improvements and we will hold them accountable at every stage,” the regulator said after the hearing. “We will continue our incisive supervision” of Boeing, he added.
A cork holder lost in flight
Richard Blumenthal had already called on the Department of Justice to verify whether Boeing respected the agreement reached in 2021 to avoid a trial linked to the two accidents. The revelations during the hearing will undoubtedly further increase the pressure. Following the alert launched by Sam Salehpour, the FAA opened an investigation into these two types of aircraft.
From now on, three of the four models of commercial aircraft manufactured by the American group are officially the subject of an investigation by the regulator. It examines the family of the 737, Boeing’s flagship aircraft, after an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 lost a cap holder in flight on January 5.
On this subject, Ed Pierson denounced a “criminal cover-up” when Boeing claims, according to the NTSB investigative authority, to have no documentation concerning the manipulations on the cap holder in its factory. “This documentation exists […] I transmitted it myself to the FBI”, the federal police, “several months ago”, he affirmed. According to an NTSB spokesperson on Wednesday, this agency “did not receive any documentation of this kind whether from Boeing or another entity.
An FAA audit identified “non-compliance issues” at the manufacturer and its subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems. The Alaska incident occurred in the wake of several production issues in 2023, involving the 737 MAX and the Dreamliner.