Boeing whistleblower airs concerns on 787

A Boeing engineer has told US lawmakers that he was harassed and threatened after he raised concerns about the safety of the company’s planes.

Whistleblower Sam Salehpour said Wednesday that his boss berated him in a 40-minute call and his tyre was punctured by a nail.

His claims will be considered as part of a congressional investigation into safety at the manufacturing giant.

Boeing has said it is co-operating with the investigation.

It did not immediately respond to a request for comment after the whistleblower hearing, one of two in Washington on Wednesday that focused on problems at the company.

The company has been in crisis since part of the body of a new Boeing 737 Max 9 being flown by Alaska Airlines broke off after take-off in January.

Passengers escaped serious injury, but the incident led to thousands of flight cancellations and renewed scrutiny of Boeing – which previously had to ground the 737 Max 8 after deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people.

The hearing brought together three whistleblowers who have emerged as some of the company’s most high-profile critics, including a former safety official at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Senator Richard Blumenthal, who led the hearing, said his committee would be investigating the safety culture at the company. Just the announcement of the hearing had prompted other whistleblowers to step forward, he said.

“This story is serious, even shocking,” he said. “There are mounting serious allegations that Boeing has a broken safety culture and set of practices that are unacceptable.”

He said it was a “moment of reckoning” for Boeing and pledged further hearings that would involve Boeing itself.

A preliminary government investigation of what happened on the Alaska Airlines flight found that bolts were missing on the piece that blew off. The company is now facing criminal investigation, among other lawsuits.

The head of the National Transportation Safety Board has criticised Boeing and accused it of failing to cooperate fully with the inquiry.

Another witness at the hearing, former Boeing manager Ed Pierson, now the executive director for the Foundation for Aviation Safety, accused Boeing of a “criminal cover-up”, saying he had personally shared documents related to the missing bolts with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

“There are some real problems at Boeing that have to get fixed,” said Senator Ron Johnson, while noting the pressure from all corners to keep jets flying.

“We all want Boeing to succeed,” he said. “People don’t want to take the actions that might be required here. I think that’s just an awful reality.”

Mr Salehpour, who has worked at Boeing for 17 years, reported his concerns to the FAA in January and went public with them earlier this month.

They are focused on the Boeing’s 787, a wider aircraft that was not the one involved in the Alaska Airlines flight or the earlier deadly crashes but has been plagued by manufacturing issues.

He has claimed that the pieces making up the body of the plane were not being properly joined, which could raise the risk of failure over time.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said it is investigating the claims, which Boeing has disputed.

Mr Salehpour, who teared up at one point, said he felt compelled to speak out, mindful of a carpool buddy who had worked on the Challenger shuttle and had his concerns ignored. The shuttle exploded in flight in 1986.

He said Boeing had transferred him to a different role and made it more difficult for him to attend things like doctor appointments.

Salehpour said he had “no proof” that the nail in his tyre was related to Boeing but believed it happened while he was at work.

“This is hell that I was subjected to,” he said.