Juliette/Michelle/AFP/Getty Images/File
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner will be built on May 30, 2023 at the airline’s assembly plant in North Charleston, South Carolina. The plant is located on the site of the joint-use Charleston Air Force Base and Charleston International Airport.
CNN
—
The Federal Aviation Administration announced Monday that it is investigating whether Boeing employees failed to perform quality inspections on the company’s 787 planes.
The FAA said the investigation was to determine whether the inspections were conducted and “whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records.”
While the investigation is ongoing, Boeing employees will inspect Dreamliners that have not yet been delivered to airline customers and develop plans for the aircraft currently flying, the FAA said.
The FAA said on its own in April that Boeing “may not have completed necessary inspections to ensure proper adhesion and grounding where the wings of certain 787 Dreamliner aircraft join the fuselage.” “We have been notified of this,” he said.
Boeing executives who oversee the 787 program said in an internal memo shared with CNN that the issue was reported by an employee and was an example of “misconduct.” He said this was not an “immediate flight safety issue.”
Scott Stocker’s memo said the company determined that “several individuals violated the company’s policy of failing to perform required testing and recording work as completed.”
“We immediately reported what we learned to regulators and, along with multiple teammates, are taking swift and serious corrective action,” the memo said.
Stocker said the company “celebrates” the employees who spoke out.
In April, Boeing engineers publicly came forward with various quality-related questions about several Boeing models, including the Dreamliner. Sam Salepour claimed that shortcuts during the manufacturing process could mean that small gaps in the 787’s fuselage were not filled properly.