(New York) – The US Civil Aviation Agency (FAA) announced Monday the opening of an investigation into Boeing to determine whether the aircraft manufacturer had conducted the required inspections on its famous 787 “Dreamliner” aircraft, and whether employees had falsified documents. .
In particular, this investigation aims to determine whether Boeing properly carried out mandatory inspections regarding the intersection of the wings and the fuselage “on certain 787 Dreamliner aircraft,” the FAA noted in an email.
The agency says it is “investigating whether Boeing conducted the inspections and whether company employees falsified documents related to the plane.”
This investigation began after Boeing informed the agency “in April that it may not have performed required inspections.”
The FAA adds that the plane manufacturer “reinspects all 787s still in production and must also develop a plan to care for the fleet in service.”
Reuters photo archive
Boeing 787 assembly line in South Carolina
The 787 Dreamliner and 737 MAX have been plagued by several production issues since 2023, slowing the plane manufacturer's deliveries. This has forced many airlines to change their flight plans for 2024.
Scott Stoker, head of the 787 program, sent an email on April 29 to his employees at Boeing in South Carolina, where the planes are assembled, informing them that “one of his teammates saw what appeared to be a violation in a required compliance test at a fuselage intersection.” the ward”.
He added: “He spoke to his manager who brought the matter to the attention of senior management.”
We quickly looked into the matter and learned that several individuals had violated company policies by not taking the required testing but recording the work as completed.
Scott Stocker, 787 Program Manager
He stressed that “the engineering team [de Boeing] It was estimated that this error did not create an immediate flight safety problem.
Boeing, which had already struggled to recover after two crashes in 2018 and 2019, is in turmoil after a series of quality and safety problems on its planes for more than a year.
An Alaska Airlines plane lost its cap carrier during flight on January 5.
On April 17, four whistleblowers, including an engineer and former Boeing employees, testified before a US Senate investigation into preventing “serious problems” in production of Boeing's 737 MAX, 787 Dreamliner and 777 aircraft.
This led to Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun announcing that he would step down at the end of the year.
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