The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Monday that it is looking into Boeing after the company said workers in a South Carolina factory faked inspection records for some 787 planes. Boeing said their engineers checked and found no immediate safety problems.
In an email to Boeing workers in South Carolina on April 29, Scott Stocker, who leads the 787 program, said a worker noticed a problem during a required test of the wing-to-body join and reported it.
“After getting the report, we looked into it and found that some people didn’t follow company rules. They didn’t do a test they were supposed to, but they said they did,” Stocker wrote.
Boeing told the FAA and is taking quick and serious action with several workers, Stocker said.
No planes have been taken out of service, but doing the test later on planes will slow down delivering jets still being built in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Boeing also has to make a plan for planes already flying, the FAA said.
FAA said on Monday that it is looking into Boeing
The 787 is a plane with two aisles, made first in 2011, and mostly used for long international flights.
“The company told us in April that it might not have done all the needed inspections to check if things were properly attached and grounded where the wings join the fuselage on some 787 Dreamliner airplanes,” the FAA said. “The FAA is looking into whether Boeing did the inspections and if workers faked records.”
Boeing has been under pressure since part of a Boeing 737 Max broke during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. It caused a big hole in the plane. The accident slowed down Boeing’s progress after two deadly crashes of Max jets in 2018 and 2019.
The crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, which killed 346 people, are getting attention again. Some families of victims want the Justice Department to bring back a criminal fraud charge against Boeing, saying Boeing’s mistakes broke a deal from 2021.
In April, a Boeing worker, Sam Salehpour, said in Congress that the company took shortcuts to make 787s quickly. His claims were not about what Boeing told the FAA last month. The company didn’t agree with Salehpour.
In his email, Stocker praised the worker who spoke up about what they saw: “I want to thank and praise that worker for doing the right thing. It’s important that we all say something when we see something wrong or needs attention.”
