Federal authorities have launched an investigation into Boeing after a whistleblower repeatedly raised concerns about two widebody jet models and claimed retaliation by the company. The whistleblower, Sam Salehpour, a Boeing engineer, alleges that the aerospace giant took shortcuts when manufacturing its 777 and 787 Dreamliner jets, posing potential catastrophic risks as the airplanes age.
Salehpour’s formal complaint to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), filed in January and made public on Tuesday, does not specifically target the troubled 737 Max jet but raises broader quality issues. According to Salehpour, there are “two quality issues that may dramatically reduce the life of the planes.”
“I am doing this not because I want Boeing to fail, but because I want it to succeed and prevent crashes from happening,” Salehpour told reporters. “The truth is Boeing can’t keep going the way it is. It needs to do a little bit better, I think.”
The FAA has interviewed Salehpour as part of its investigation, and his attorney, Lisa Banks, confirmed that a Senate subcommittee will also examine the concerns at an upcoming hearing.
In response, Boeing disputed Salehpour’s claims, stating, “We are fully confident in the safety and durability of the 777 family,” and dismissing the allegations about the 787 as “inaccurate and do not represent the comprehensive work Boeing has done to ensure the quality and long-term safety of the aircraft.”
Salehpour’s complaint alleges that crews assembling the 787 Dreamliner failed to properly fill tiny gaps when joining separately manufactured parts of the fuselage, putting more wear on the plane and shortening its lifespan while risking “catastrophic” failure. These allegations are not entirely new, as the FAA and Boeing previously halted Dreamliner deliveries in 2021 and 2022 to investigate the gaps, with Boeing claiming to have addressed the issue through changes in its manufacturing process.
However, Salehpour’s attorneys claim that the FAA was surprised to discover through his complaint that the gaps were still an issue. Salehpour described witnessing workers “jumping on the pieces of the airplane to get them to align,” which he says is “not how you build an airplane.”
Additionally, the whistleblower complaint alleges that Salehpour faced retaliation after raising concerns about drilling issues with the 787 and another plane model. He claims he was “ignored and ultimately transferred out of the 787 program to the 777 program,” where he discovered further subpar work and pressure on engineers to green-light uninspected work.
In total, Salehpour says the issues involve more than 400 777s and 1,000 787s, raising significant safety concerns and prompting federal scrutiny of Boeing’s manufacturing practices.
