Boeing whistleblower doubles down on claims saying 787s should be grounded fearing ‘fatal

Boeing whistleblower Sam Salehpour told NBC News’ Tom Costello in a shocking interview that Boeing’s controversial 787 jets should be grounded on account of ‘fatal flaws’ that could cause the aircraft to fall apart mid air. 

The interview, which aired Tuesday night on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, comes just a day before Salehpour heads to Congress to testify about his concerns surrounding Boeing’s safety practices, in particular cracks caused by fatigue as a result of planes flying thousands of hours.

Salehpour said that through coming forward in the media and in front of Congress, he was going to save people’s lives. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun has also been summoned but it remains unclear if he will attend. 

This week, Steve Chisholm, Boeing’s chief engineer, mechanical and structural engineering said investigators have not found fatigue cracks on in-service 787 jets that have gone through heavy maintenance.

The pair are set to answer questions surrounding a string of safety incidents involving Boeing, notably the blowout of a door plugin that occurred on an Alaska Airlines flight in January.  

The panel plugged a space left for an extra emergency door on the jet, which was operated by Alaska Airlines. Pilots were able to land safely, and there were no injuries.

Earlier this year, the long time engineer laid out his allegations in in a Federal Aviation Administration complaint. 

 Salehpour told Costello that the stress created from fastening together big pieces of the fuselage, in order to fix gaps, could cause ‘fatigue failure’ mid air. 

The result would see ‘the plane fall apart at the joints… once you fall apart, you’re going to descend all the way to the ground.’ When asked if he felt the plane could fall apart in the air, Salehpour replied: ‘Absolutely.’ 

‘The entire fleet worldwide, as far as I’m concerned right now, needs attention,’ he went on speaking about the 787. 

‘And the attention is, you need to check your gaps and make sure that you don’t have potential for premature failure,’ Salehpour continued. 

In addition to his structural concerns, Salehpour said he faced retaliation, such as threats and exclusion from meetings, after he identified engineering problems that affected the structural integrity of the jets, and claimed Boeing employed shortcuts to reduce bottlenecks during 787 assembly, his attorneys said.

Boeing halted deliveries of the 787 widebody jet for more than a year until August 2022 as the FAA investigated quality problems and manufacturing flaws.  

In 2021, Boeing said had shims that were not the proper size and some aircraft had areas that did not meet skin-flatness specifications. A shim is a thin piece of material used to fill tiny gaps in a manufactured product.

Salehpour observed shortcuts used by Boeing to reduce bottlenecks during the 787 assembly process that placed ‘excessive stress on major airplane joints, and embedded drilling debris between key joints on more than 1,000 planes,’ his lawyers said.  

He told reporters last week that he saw problems with misalignment in the production of the 777 widebody jet which were remedied by using force.

‘I literally saw people jumping on the pieces of the airplane to get them to align,’ he said.

Two senior Boeing officials said Monday there were zero airframe fatigue findings among the near 700 in-service Dreamliner jets that have undertaken heavy maintenance inspections after six years and 12 years. 

‘All these results have been shared with the FAA,’ said Steve Chisholm.  

The 787, which was launched in 2004, had a specification of five-thousandths of an inch gap allowance within a five-inch area, or ‘the thickness of a human hair,’ said Lisa Fahl, vice president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes airplane programs engineering.

She said reports of workers jumping on plane parts were ‘not part of our process.’

Salehpour’s attorney, Debra Katz, said in an emailed statement to Reuters that her client tried for years to see data that would address his concerns about the safety of gaps in the 787.

‘Any data provided by Boeing should be validated by independent experts and the FAA before it is taken at face value,’ Katz said.

 The Federal Aviation Administration has also been investigating Salehpour’s allegations since February, according to the subcommittee.  

Salehpour, whose concerns were featured in a New York Times article last week, is also expected to describe retaliation he faced after bringing his concerns forward.

According to that account, Salehpour worked on the 787 but grew alarmed over changes to the assembly of the fuselage, the main body of the aircraft. 

That process entails fitting together and fastening giant sections of the fuselage, each one produced by a different company, according to Salehpour’s account.

Salehpour told the Times he believed Boeing was taking shortcuts that led to excessive force in the assembly process, creating deformations in the composite material used in the aircraft’s outer skin. 

Such composites often consist of plastic layers reinforced by a mesh of carbon or glass fibers, increasing tensile strength and making them a useful substitute for heavier metals.

But composites can lose those benefits if they are twisted or otherwise deformed. Salehpour alleged that such problems could create increased material fatigue, possibly leading to premature failure of the composite, according to the Times account.  

Accident investigators’ subsequent discovery of missing bolts intended to secure the panel on the door panel in January rocked Boeing, which once boasted an enviable safety culture. 

Alaska Airlines and United Airlines — the two U.S. carriers that fly the Max 9 — also reported finding loose bolts and other hardware in other panels, suggesting that quality issues with the door plugs were not limited to one plane.

Both the 787 and the 737 Max have been plagued by production defects that have sporadically held up deliveries and left airlines short of planes during busy travel seasons.