Boeing has been dealing with several faults in its aircraft in recent months, causing airplane parts to break or disconnect from the aircraft during flights.
A company engineer, Sam Salehpour, says that the cause of this is that Boeing “took shortcuts when fixing its 787 and 777 aircraft. He added that, “He identified engineering issues that affected the aircraft's structural integrity, and Boeing used shortcuts to reduce bottlenecks during the assembly of the 787 aircraft.”
The World Street Journal reported that according to Salehpour, shortcuts in the construction of the aircraft resulted in them being used for a shorter period of time. Salehpour’s lawyers said that after he voiced his claims, Boeing's directors threatened him with dismissal, and he was even removed from meetings that concerned the design and construction of the company's aircraft.
After Salehpour’s disclosure, Boeing's stock suffered a 2% drop on Tuesday, when the Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating the claims. Boeing has manufactured only 83 new passenger planes since the beginning of 2024, the lowest number since 2021. In response to Salehpour’s claims about "shortcuts in the construction of the aircraft," Boeing denied the accusations and claimed that the use of its planes is completely safe."
“The claims are inaccurate. We are confident that our planes are safe. The issues raised by Salehpour’s claims were subjected to rigorous engineering review under the supervision of the Federal Aviation Administration. This analysis has verified that these issues do not cause safety concerns and the aircraft will maintain its service for several decades," Boeing responded.