Boeing is defending the integrity of the fuselages on two of its largest planes, which have come under criticism from a whistleblower who warns that panels on the outside of one of the planes could eventually break apart during flight.
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00:00 I have over 40 years of experience as an engineer.
00:04 I'm not here today because I want to be here.
00:07 I'm here today because I felt that I must come forward
00:10 because I do not want to see another 787,
00:14 I do not want to see 787 or 7777 crash.
00:18 I have serious concerns about the safety
00:21 of the 787 and 7777 aircraft,
00:24 and I'm willing to take on professional risk
00:26 to talk about it.
00:27 In a rush to address its bottlenecks in production,
00:31 Boeing hit problems pushing pieces together
00:34 with excessive force to make them appear
00:37 that the gaps don't exist even though they exist.
00:40 The gap didn't actually go away,
00:42 and this may result in premature fatigue failure.
00:46 Effectively, they are putting out defective airplanes.
00:49 I respectively, I repeatedly produced reports
00:53 for my supervisors and Boeing management
00:56 demonstrating that the gaps in the 787
00:59 not being properly measured or shimmed
01:01 in two major joints of the 787.
01:04 Evaluating from Boeing,
01:06 from the 29 inspected airplane data,
01:10 I found gaps exceeding the specification
01:13 that were not properly addressed 98.7% of the time.
01:18 I literally saw people jumping on the pieces of the airplane
01:22 to get them to align.
01:23 I call it the Tarzan effect.
01:26 Among other improper methods.
01:28 Again, I raised concerns internally.
01:30 I was sidelined.
01:32 I was told to shut up.
01:33 I received physical threats.
01:35 My boss said, "I would have killed someone
01:39 "who said what you said in a meeting."
01:42 And then, this is not a safety culture
01:45 where you get threatened
01:46 by bringing issues of safety concerns.
01:49 I hope that your work on this issue signals to Boeing
01:53 that they must make real changes
01:56 and get back to building their airplane safely.
01:59 - The world is shocked to learn
02:00 about Boeing's current production quality issues.
02:02 I'm not surprised,
02:04 because nothing changed after the two crashes.
02:07 There was no accountability.
02:08 Not a single person from Boeing went to jail.
02:11 Hundreds of people died, and there's been no justice.
02:14 Unless action is taken and leaders are held accountable,
02:18 every person stepping aboard a Boeing airplane is at risk.
02:22 Government authorities ignored Boeing's
02:24 manufacturing problems until the Alaska accident.
02:26 Passengers shouldn't have to rely on whistleblowers
02:29 to provide the truth.
02:30 They should be able to get on airplanes
02:32 and not have to worry about what model it is,
02:34 whether it was designed and manufactured
02:36 to the highest of standards,
02:37 whether the airline is operating and maintaining it properly
02:40 or whether government agencies are providing
02:43 proper oversight.
02:44 FAA, DOT, and NTSB leaders frequently state
02:48 our aviation system is the gold standard.
02:51 There's a reason commercial aviation
02:52 has been historically safe,
02:54 and that's because people worked extremely hard
02:56 for decades to keep them safe.
02:58 They told the truth.
02:59 They admitted their mistakes,
03:01 and they didn't downplay safety incidents.
03:03 These agencies have become lazy, complacent, and reactive.
03:08 The deterioration has been occurring over several years.
03:11 My second point is the gold standard is now fool's gold,
03:15 'cause the only thing that is more dangerous
03:18 than a dangerous environment
03:20 is the illusion of a safe environment.
03:21 They hear safety is our number one priority,
03:25 but what they see is that that's only true
03:26 as long as your production milestones are met,
03:28 and at that point, it's push it out the door
03:30 as fast as you can.
03:32 They hear speak up if you see anything that's unsafe,
03:36 but what they see is that if they do speak up,
03:40 they get very little feedback,
03:42 and if they insist, they may find themselves
03:45 on the short end of the stick next time raises or bonuses
03:48 or job transfers come up or even worse.
03:52 The problem we found was that
03:53 they just didn't seem to,
03:58 there was lack of confidence in, say, for example,
04:00 if you tried to report it anonymously,
04:03 there was lack of confidence
04:03 that there would be an anonymous that we maintain.
04:06 There was very lack of confidence
04:07 that things would actually get done
04:09 about what you were doing,
04:10 and there was a very real fear of retribution and payback
04:14 if you held your ground,
04:16 and obviously, those are things
04:17 that are just not compatible with any sort of safety culture.