FAA Launches Inquiry into Boeing 787 Dreamliner

The Federal Aviation Administration announced on Monday that it has launched an inquiry into the Boeing 787 Dreamliner after the plane-maker stated that some personnel had engaged in “misconduct” by stating that some testing had been completed.

The FAA stated it is examining whether Boeing conducted the inspections to confirm appropriate bonding and grounding where the wings join the fuselage on certain 787 Dreamliner’s “and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records.”

The agency added “at the same time, Boeing is reinspecting all 787 airplanes still within the production system and must also create a plan to address the in-service fleet.”

Boeing shares fell 1.5% to $177.03 late Monday afternoon.When asked for reaction, Boeing forwarded an April 29 email from Scott Stocker, the company’s 787 program manager, to employees in South Carolina, where the Boeing 787 is manufactured.

In the email, Stocker stated that an employee discovered what looked to be an error in a necessary Boeing 787 conformity test.

Stocker stated in the email that after getting the information, “we quickly reviewed the matter and learned that several people had been violating Company policies by not performing a required test but recording the work as completed.”

Serious corrective action taken Over Boeing 787

He stated that Boeing immediately alerted the FAA “about what we learned and are taking swift and serious corrective action with multiple” workers. He said, “our engineering team has assessed that this misconduct did not create an immediate safety of flight issue.”

Boeing announced in April that it anticipated a slower growth in production and delivery of its 787 Dreamliner wide-body jets as it deals with supplier constraints “on a few key parts.”

A Boeing quality engineer testified before Congress last month, criticizing some of the manufacturing procedures used on the 787 and 777 wide-body planes.

The Justice Department is investigating a January 5 mid-air emergency involving a Boeing 737 MAX 9.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, four crucial bolts appeared to be missing from the jet that Boeing had supplied months earlier. Boeing thinks that the requisite paperwork detailing the bolt removal were never prepared.

Second Whistleblower Dead

Meanwhile, a second Boeing whistleblower died from an unexpected illness.

Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at Spirit AeroSystems, has claimed that the company’s leadership ignored production flaws in Boeing’s 737 MAX. Spirit AeroSystems is a Boeing supplier.

Dean, 45, led an active lifestyle and was thought to be in good condition before his “sudden” death on Tuesday, the result of a fast-moving virus. According to Fox59, he contracted Influenza B and MRSA before developing pneumonia.

According to The Seattle Times, he died in Oklahoma on Tuesday after being in serious condition for two weeks.

Dean, from Wichita, is the second whistleblower to die this year after speaking out about safety concerns in the aviation manufacturing industry. John Barnett, 62, a Boeing whistleblower, was discovered dead in his pickup in a hotel parking lot in South Carolina in March.

The whistleblower’s death is the latest in a series of instances involving troubled Boeing over the last year. In January, a door plug on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 blew out in midair, prompting the FAA to stop all 171 MAX 9 jets and launch an investigation.

Soon after, at least four people came forward — including both of the now-deceased whistleblowers — to claim that corner cutting in the jets’ production process was putting lives at danger. Following the disarray, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun announced in March that he would step down at the end of the year. Boeing reported a net loss of $355 million in the first quarter of 2024.

Joshua Dean came out to raise concerns about airplane safety. In a complaint to the Federal Aviation Administration, he stated that there was “serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line” at Spirit.

He also testified in a shareholder case against Spirit AeroSystems filed in December 2023. According to Supply Chain Dive, the shareholders claimed that Spirit “concealed from investors that Spirit suffered from widespread and sustained quality failures,” and that “quality failures” happened because the company was chasing profits.