FAA Launches New Boeing Probe, 787 Dreamliners Under Fire

Boeing has been facing a myriad of problems since February when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a report highlighting the airline manufacturer’s safety shortcomings.

Now, the beleaguered company is facing a new round of drama as the FAA announces the launch of a new probe, this time against the 787 Dreamliners.

CNN reports that investigators are investigating the company’s jumbo jets amidst reports that Boeing employees may have “falsified aircraft records.”

Specifically, the FAA is concerned that safety inspections on the 787 Dreamliners weren’t performed properly, or at all, and that company employees may have reported they conducted safety inspections when they didn’t. The agency is also devising a plan for the 787s that have already been delivered to airline customers, while Boeing employees will begin inspecting the 787s that have not yet been delivered.

But the FAA has also made it clear that the company “voluntarily informed us in April that it may not have completed required inspections to confirm adequate bonding and grounding where the wings join the fuselage on certain 787 Dreamliner airplanes.”

Furthermore, Boeing said that the issue was an instance of “misconduct” reported by an employee and was not a safety issue. “We promptly informed our regulator about what we learned and are taking swift and serious corrective action with multiple teammates,” read a memo from Scott Stocker, a Boeing executive, who promised that the company would “celebrate” the whistleblower.

According to the memo, “Several people had been violating company policies by not performing a required test, but recording the work as having been completed.”

But this isn’t the first time that Boeing has been alerted to the 787’s potential safety issues.

Last month, serious claims made by a whistleblower prompted an inquiry by the FAA. The allegations centered on issues with quality and safety that were raised during the manufacture of the company’s 777 and 787 aircraft.

Sam Salehpour, a Boeing engineer, reportedly raised technical concerns that have an impact on the aircraft’s structural integrity. According to Salehpour’s lawyers, he voiced concerns about shortcuts being taken during the 787 assembly process, ostensibly to relieve bottlenecks.

Boeing had previously been under investigation for the caliber of its aircraft. Delivery of the 787 was halted in 2021 due to production defects and quality issues, and this continued until August 2022, after the FAA conducted additional investigations.