Opinion Boeing's quality control draws criticism as a whistleblower alleges lapses at factory

[LeonardoBjj]

Joel Rose

WASHINGTON — Concerns about quality control at Boeing are mounting, as new revelations from an alleged whistleblower suggest mistakes at the company's factory led to a fuselage panel blowing off an Alaska Airlines jet in midair earlier this month.

No one was seriously injured when the panel known as a door plug blew off at 16,000 feet. But the dramatic incident has renewed questions about Boeing's manufacturing processes, and whether the company is prioritizing speed and profit over safety.

Now a self-described Boeing employee claims to have details about how the door plug on that Boeing 737 Max 9 was improperly installed. Those new details, which were first reported by the Seattle Times, were published in a post on an aviation website last week.



"The reason the door blew off is stated in black and white in Boeing's own records," wrote the whistleblower, who appears to have access to the company's manufacturing records. "It is also very, very stupid and speaks volumes about the quality culture at certain portions of the business."

According to the whistleblower's account, four bolts that are supposed to hold the door plug in place "were not installed when Boeing delivered the plane, our own records reflect this."

Investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board have already raised the possibility that the bolts were not installed. The NTSB is still investigating the incident. If the whistleblower's description is accurate, investigators may be able to confirm it by looking at Boeing's records.

Boeing declined to comment on the whistleblower allegations, citing the ongoing investigation.

Those allegations came to light just as Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun was visiting Capitol Hill Wednesday, where he is seeking to reassure lawmakers and the public.

"We believe in our airplanes," Calhoun told reporters. "We have confidence in the safety of our airplanes. And that's what all of this is about. We fully understand the gravity."

NPR has not verified the identity of the whistleblower.

But this person's explanation of problems in the manufacturing process that led to the door plug blowout seem credible to Ed Pierson, a former senior manager at Boeing's 737 factory in Renton, Wash.

"It definitely seemed accurate to me," said Pierson, who now directs the non-profit Foundation for Aviation Safety. "And it doesn't surprise me, because this is the kind of stuff that we had seen, I had seen in the past."

"This is symptomatic of what happens when you rush production," Pierson said. "People are put under this kind of pressure, and they're forced to take shortcuts. And that's where these mistakes are made."

The Alaska Airlines incident is another major setback for Boeing, which was still working to rebuild public trust after the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max 8 jets in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.

After the latest Alaska Airlines incident, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes with similar door panel configurations.

Regulators at the FAA announced late Wednesday that the grounded aircraft can resume flying after a "thorough inspection and maintenance process." But the agency also imposed sweeping jet production restrictions at the company's factories.

Alaska and United Airlines have canceled thousands of flights as they waited for final inspection instructions from regulators. The CEOs of both airlines criticized Boeing in separate interviews on Tuesday.

"I'm more than frustrated and disappointed," Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci told NBC News. "I am angry."

"It's clear to me that we received an airplane from Boeing with a faulty door," he said.

That is exactly what the Boeing whistleblower alleges. Their post describes in detail how the door plug was removed for repairs and then replaced at the Boeing factory. The four bolts that hold the door plug in place should have been reattached, the whistleblower writes.

But they were not, the whistleblower says, because of communication problems between employees who work for Boeing and those who work for Spirit AeroSystems, the company that built the fuselage and door panel.

The whistleblower describes the safety inspection process at Boeing's 737 factory in Renton as "a rambling, shambling, disaster waiting to happen."

Boeing's 737 factory teams in Renton are scheduled to hold what the company is calling a "Quality Stand Down" on Thursday, allowing production to pause for a day so employees can take part in special training sessions.

But it's clear the company will have to do more than that to rebuild its reputation.

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, met with Calhoun on Wednesday.

"I made it clear that quality engineering and a commitment to safety always have to be the top priority," Cantwell said in a statement.

Cantwell says she plans to hold hearings to investigate the root causes of the door plug blowout.

"The American flying public and Boeing line workers deserve a culture of leadership at Boeing that puts safety ahead of profits," she said.

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/24/1226...cism-as-a-whistleblower-alleges-lapses-at-fac

 

[Get To Da Choppa]

I've been following the industry for a while now, and it's amazing how Boeing went from a engineering driven company to a bean counter/wall street driven company in a couple of decades.

I would venture to say the last great plane Boeing designed is the 777. The 787 is an engineering marvel, but the quality control was and probably still is dog shit. I think American Airlines even refused to take 787 made in South Carolina. It's no better on the military side. Trash have been found in avionics bay of newly delivered KC-767 refueling planes.

There needs to be a cleanup at the executive level, and get rid of the McDonnell Douglas mentality of short term profit gains over long term safety and growth. I doubt it'll happen though with how quarterly earning is the most important metric, but I would love to be proven wrong

 

[Sinister]

Joel Rose

WASHINGTON — Concerns about quality control at Boeing are mounting, as new revelations from an alleged whistleblower suggest mistakes at the company's factory led to a fuselage panel blowing off an Alaska Airlines jet in midair earlier this month.

No one was seriously injured when the panel known as a door plug blew off at 16,000 feet. But the dramatic incident has renewed questions about Boeing's manufacturing processes, and whether the company is prioritizing speed and profit over safety.

Now a self-described Boeing employee claims to have details about how the door plug on that Boeing 737 Max 9 was improperly installed. Those new details, which were first reported by the Seattle Times, were published in a post on an aviation website last week.



"The reason the door blew off is stated in black and white in Boeing's own records," wrote the whistleblower, who appears to have access to the company's manufacturing records. "It is also very, very stupid and speaks volumes about the quality culture at certain portions of the business."

According to the whistleblower's account, four bolts that are supposed to hold the door plug in place "were not installed when Boeing delivered the plane, our own records reflect this."

Investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board have already raised the possibility that the bolts were not installed. The NTSB is still investigating the incident. If the whistleblower's description is accurate, investigators may be able to confirm it by looking at Boeing's records.

Boeing declined to comment on the whistleblower allegations, citing the ongoing investigation.

Those allegations came to light just as Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun was visiting Capitol Hill Wednesday, where he is seeking to reassure lawmakers and the public.

"We believe in our airplanes," Calhoun told reporters. "We have confidence in the safety of our airplanes. And that's what all of this is about. We fully understand the gravity."

NPR has not verified the identity of the whistleblower.

But this person's explanation of problems in the manufacturing process that led to the door plug blowout seem credible to Ed Pierson, a former senior manager at Boeing's 737 factory in Renton, Wash.

"It definitely seemed accurate to me," said Pierson, who now directs the non-profit Foundation for Aviation Safety. "And it doesn't surprise me, because this is the kind of stuff that we had seen, I had seen in the past."

"This is symptomatic of what happens when you rush production," Pierson said. "People are put under this kind of pressure, and they're forced to take shortcuts. And that's where these mistakes are made."

The Alaska Airlines incident is another major setback for Boeing, which was still working to rebuild public trust after the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max 8 jets in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.

After the latest Alaska Airlines incident, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes with similar door panel configurations.

Regulators at the FAA announced late Wednesday that the grounded aircraft can resume flying after a "thorough inspection and maintenance process." But the agency also imposed sweeping jet production restrictions at the company's factories.

Alaska and United Airlines have canceled thousands of flights as they waited for final inspection instructions from regulators. The CEOs of both airlines criticized Boeing in separate interviews on Tuesday.

"I'm more than frustrated and disappointed," Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci told NBC News. "I am angry."

"It's clear to me that we received an airplane from Boeing with a faulty door," he said.

That is exactly what the Boeing whistleblower alleges. Their post describes in detail how the door plug was removed for repairs and then replaced at the Boeing factory. The four bolts that hold the door plug in place should have been reattached, the whistleblower writes.

But they were not, the whistleblower says, because of communication problems between employees who work for Boeing and those who work for Spirit AeroSystems, the company that built the fuselage and door panel.

The whistleblower describes the safety inspection process at Boeing's 737 factory in Renton as "a rambling, shambling, disaster waiting to happen."

Boeing's 737 factory teams in Renton are scheduled to hold what the company is calling a "Quality Stand Down" on Thursday, allowing production to pause for a day so employees can take part in special training sessions.

But it's clear the company will have to do more than that to rebuild its reputation.

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, met with Calhoun on Wednesday.

"I made it clear that quality engineering and a commitment to safety always have to be the top priority," Cantwell said in a statement.

Cantwell says she plans to hold hearings to investigate the root causes of the door plug blowout.

"The American flying public and Boeing line workers deserve a culture of leadership at Boeing that puts safety ahead of profits," she said.

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/24/1226...cism-as-a-whistleblower-alleges-lapses-at-fac

Giant multi-national corporation is cutting corners in ways that could kill hundreds of people at a time?

Color me surprised

 

[nostradumbass]

Well sure they're churning out death traps, but does their staff have enough blacks, women, and members of the LGBTSDFE community?

 

[Sinister]

Someone's been watching Charlie Jerk, always playing that race/sex/gay card.

 

[James Eagle]

Giant multi-national corporation is cutting corners in ways that could kill hundreds of people at a time?

Color me surprised

DEI program

 

[fungi]

As long as Boeing keeps sabotaging Airbus, Boeing will be fine. There's no competition.

 

[Van Daz]

Relax. Everything with be fine with their newly appointed head of quality control.....

 

[CantCucktheTuck]

If the last three years has taught me anything, it that whistleblowers are to be ignored.

 

[chardog]

Giant multi-national corporation is cutting corners in ways that could kill hundreds of people at a time?

Color me surprised

is this the hip new way of saying DEI?

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Boeing should stick to defense. Where the objective is to kill people.

 

[HereticBD]

You'd think they'd be under a microscope at all times after that sensor issue, that downed a few planes and killed a few hundred people not too long ago.

I'd suggest nobody gets on a Boeing plane in the future, if you value your life. Just think of the wonderful fuck ups they haven't discovered yet. This one isn't even complicated. Just plum didn't bolt the panel in. Whooopsidoodle!

What a bunch of clowns.

 

[Koro_11]

Giant multi-national corporation is cutting corners in ways that could kill hundreds of people at a time?

Color me surprised

If it was that you would have always had these issues.

Funny how most of this starts happening after they prioritized diversity over competence.

 

[Sweater of AV]

Somehow people equate the concept of DEI with this:

"This is symptomatic of what happens when you rush production," Pierson said. "People are put under this kind of pressure, and they're forced to take shortcuts. And that's where these mistakes are made."



If this thread has proven anything, it's that 90% of Sherdoggers either can't read or have the reading comprehension of a three year old and can only parrot nonsense to make them feel better about being unemployed.

 

[LeonardoBjj]

Bolts appeared to be missing from Boeing 737 Max door plug that blew off midflight, NTSB says​

Leslie Josephs@LESLIEJOSEPHS

• The NTSB’s preliminary report comes about a month after a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines’ 737 Max 9.
• Boeing’s CEO said on Jan. 31 that his company “caused” the issue.
• The FAA has halted Boeing’s planned production expansion of the 737 Max.

Bolts appeared to have been missing from a door plug that blew out midair on a Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines last month, according to a new report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

The Jan. 5 accident left a gaping hole in the side of the fuselage as the plane full of passengers climbed out of Portland, Oregon, and was flying at about 16,000 feet. The panel that blew out is used to plug an unused emergency exit.

“Overall, the observed damage patterns and absence of contact damage or deformation around holes associated with the vertical movement arrestor bolts and upper guide track bolts in the upper guide fittings, hinge fittings, and recovered aft lower hinge guide fitting indicate that four bolts that prevent upward movement of the MED plug were missing before the MED plug moved upward off the stop pads,” the NTSB said in its preliminary report, released Tuesday.

The preliminary report into Flight 1282 provides the most detail yet about what went wrong before the aircraft was handed over to Alaska Airlines late last year.

The fuselage, including the door plug, both produced by Spirit AeroSystems, arrived at Boeing’s Renton, Washington, plant on Aug. 31. A day later a repair was logged for five damaged rivets, a job that required the bolts to be removed, the NTSB said.

“The investigation continues to determine what manufacturing documents were used to authorize the opening and closing of the left [door] plug during the rivet rework,” the NTSB said.

“Boeing appreciates the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board’s work and will review their findings expeditiously. And we will continue to cooperate fully and transparently with the NTSB and the FAA investigations,” the company said in a statement.




The accident prompted a grounding of the Max 9 by the Federal Aviation Administration for much of last month. Most of the Max 9 planes in the U.S. have returned to service.

Boeing’s CEO, Dave Calhoun, under pressure to address manufacturing defects that have delayed aircraft deliveries, has said the company is responsible for what went wrong.

“We caused the problem,” Calhoun said on a Jan. 31 earnings call. “Over these last few weeks, I’ve had tough conversations with our customers, with our regulators, congressional leaders and more. We understand why they are angry, and we will work to earn their confidence.”

The FAA is also auditing Boeing’s production lines and last month said it would stop the company from increasing output of the bestselling Max jet beyond the current 38 a month it is producing until regulators are satisfied with its manufacturing processes.

The Jan. 5 accident occurred just as Boeing was trying to ramp up output.

“As we review the NTSB’s preliminary report, we remain focused on working closely with Boeing and our regulators on continuous improvement in our processes and meeting the highest standards of safety, quality and reliability,” Spirit said in a statement.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/06/nts...s-appeared-missing-from-alaska-air-plane.html

 

[Andy Capp]

Joel Rose

WASHINGTON — Concerns about quality control at Boeing are mounting, as new revelations from an alleged whistleblower suggest mistakes at the company's factory led to a fuselage panel blowing off an Alaska Airlines jet in midair earlier this month.

No one was seriously injured when the panel known as a door plug blew off at 16,000 feet. But the dramatic incident has renewed questions about Boeing's manufacturing processes, and whether the company is prioritizing speed and profit over safety.

Now a self-described Boeing employee claims to have details about how the door plug on that Boeing 737 Max 9 was improperly installed. Those new details, which were first reported by the Seattle Times, were published in a post on an aviation website last week.



"The reason the door blew off is stated in black and white in Boeing's own records," wrote the whistleblower, who appears to have access to the company's manufacturing records. "It is also very, very stupid and speaks volumes about the quality culture at certain portions of the business."

According to the whistleblower's account, four bolts that are supposed to hold the door plug in place "were not installed when Boeing delivered the plane, our own records reflect this."

Investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board have already raised the possibility that the bolts were not installed. The NTSB is still investigating the incident. If the whistleblower's description is accurate, investigators may be able to confirm it by looking at Boeing's records.

Boeing declined to comment on the whistleblower allegations, citing the ongoing investigation.

Those allegations came to light just as Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun was visiting Capitol Hill Wednesday, where he is seeking to reassure lawmakers and the public.

"We believe in our airplanes," Calhoun told reporters. "We have confidence in the safety of our airplanes. And that's what all of this is about. We fully understand the gravity."

NPR has not verified the identity of the whistleblower.

But this person's explanation of problems in the manufacturing process that led to the door plug blowout seem credible to Ed Pierson, a former senior manager at Boeing's 737 factory in Renton, Wash.

"It definitely seemed accurate to me," said Pierson, who now directs the non-profit Foundation for Aviation Safety. "And it doesn't surprise me, because this is the kind of stuff that we had seen, I had seen in the past."

"This is symptomatic of what happens when you rush production," Pierson said. "People are put under this kind of pressure, and they're forced to take shortcuts. And that's where these mistakes are made."

The Alaska Airlines incident is another major setback for Boeing, which was still working to rebuild public trust after the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max 8 jets in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.

After the latest Alaska Airlines incident, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes with similar door panel configurations.

Regulators at the FAA announced late Wednesday that the grounded aircraft can resume flying after a "thorough inspection and maintenance process." But the agency also imposed sweeping jet production restrictions at the company's factories.

Alaska and United Airlines have canceled thousands of flights as they waited for final inspection instructions from regulators. The CEOs of both airlines criticized Boeing in separate interviews on Tuesday.

"I'm more than frustrated and disappointed," Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci told NBC News. "I am angry."

"It's clear to me that we received an airplane from Boeing with a faulty door," he said.

That is exactly what the Boeing whistleblower alleges. Their post describes in detail how the door plug was removed for repairs and then replaced at the Boeing factory. The four bolts that hold the door plug in place should have been reattached, the whistleblower writes.

But they were not, the whistleblower says, because of communication problems between employees who work for Boeing and those who work for Spirit AeroSystems, the company that built the fuselage and door panel.

The whistleblower describes the safety inspection process at Boeing's 737 factory in Renton as "a rambling, shambling, disaster waiting to happen."

Boeing's 737 factory teams in Renton are scheduled to hold what the company is calling a "Quality Stand Down" on Thursday, allowing production to pause for a day so employees can take part in special training sessions.

But it's clear the company will have to do more than that to rebuild its reputation.

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, met with Calhoun on Wednesday.

"I made it clear that quality engineering and a commitment to safety always have to be the top priority," Cantwell said in a statement.

Cantwell says she plans to hold hearings to investigate the root causes of the door plug blowout.

"The American flying public and Boeing line workers deserve a culture of leadership at Boeing that puts safety ahead of profits," she said.

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/24/1226...cism-as-a-whistleblower-alleges-lapses-at-fac

Fuckin' dude really said, "We understand the gravity," when talking about issues with planes... you can't help but <45>

 

[CyberRubberDuck]

Well sure they're churning out death traps, but does their staff have enough blacks, women, and members of the LGBTSDFE community?

You can never have enough