The Federal Aviation Administration has opened an investigation into Boeing after it learned the company may not have completed required inspections on 787 Dreamliner jets.
Boeing voluntarily told the FAA in April about the potential incomplete inspections meant to “confirm adequate bonding and grounding where the wings join the fuselage on certain 787 Dreamliner airplanes,” an FAA statement said.
“The FAA is investigating whether Boeing completed the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records. At the same time, Boeing is reinspecting all 787 airplanes still within the production system and must also create a plan to address the in-service fleet.”
The agency added that it will take any necessary action to ensure the public's safety.
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No one with Boeing could be immediately reached Monday afternoon for comment.
Scott Stocker, who leads the Boeing 787 program, told South Carolina Boeing employees on April 29 in a statement, the matter is not an immediate safety concern for its in-service fleet.
Stocker said a “teammate” in a factory saw something he believed was not done right and spoke up about it.
“The teammate saw what appeared to be an irregularity in a required conformance test in wing body join. He raised it with his manager, who brought it to the attention of executive leadership,” Stocker said. "I wanted to personally thank and commend that teammate for doing the right thing. It’s critical that every one of us speak up when we see something that may not look right, or that needs attention.”
Boeing learned that several people have been violating company policy by not performing a required test, “but recording the work as having been completed," Stocker said.
He added, “We promptly informed our regulator about what we learned and are taking swift and serious corrective action with multiple teammates. Fortunately, our engineering team has assessed that this misconduct did not create an immediate safety of flight issue. But it will impact our customers and factory teammates because the tests now need to be conducted out of sequence on airplanes in the build process.”
Last month, it was reported a whistleblower claimed Boeing's 787 Dreamliner planes have structural failings that could eventually cause them to break apart.
The FAA is investigating claims made by Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour, The New York Times reported.
In a long response, Boeing strongly disputed the claims and said it was “fully confident” in the 787.
The Virginia-based company has been engulfed in a slew of negative stories since a door panel blew out on a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane flown by Alaska Airlines in January. The FBI informed passengers in March that they may have been the victims of a crime that the bureau was investigating.
That same month, the company announced three senior Boeing executives, including its CEO, are stepping down.
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