Boeing’s safety culture was scrutinised in a US Senate hearing where a whistleblower, Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour, testified about production methods post-Alaska Airlines door plug blowout.
Salehpour analyzed Boeing’s data and claimed the company took manufacturing shortcuts on the 787 program, potentially reducing safety, citing issues in fuselage assembly and gaps that weren’t addressed properly.
Salehpour detailed instances where excessive force was used to align fuselage pieces, raising safety concerns, and described being sidelined after speaking out, alleging a lack of corrective action within Boeing.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating Salehpour’s claims, while Boeing has refuted them and expressed confidence in the safety of their 787 and 777 jets.
Other witnesses at the hearing, including Ed Pierson and Joe Jacobsen, raised concerns about Boeing’s manufacturing and design defects, questioning the safety culture and practices within the company.
The hearing, chaired by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, highlighted allegations of a broken safety culture at Boeing, with calls for cooperation with the Department of Justice and ongoing efforts to improve transparency and reporting within the company.
Lisa Fahl, the vice president of engineering for airplane programmes at Boeing Commercial Airplanes said: “we are on a continuous improvement journey on ensuring that our teammates’ opinions and questions get answered. We hear from them, we create processes, we continue to evolve on this process as we go forward and just welcome the feedback and encourage it and want it from our team, that’s how we make us better, that’s the foundation of the Safety Management System and aerospace safety in general, is people speaking up.”
