Another Boeing employee has come forward with allegations of major safety issues at the airline company.
An engineer who worked on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, Sam Salehpour, provided a whistleblower statement to The New York Times.
Salehpour alleges that the airplane manufacturer is connecting some sections of the plane’s fuselage in an extremely unsafe way.
The engineer warns the situation could lead to planes breaking apart in midair over time.
Salehpour said during a conference call involving his lawyers that he “literally saw people jumping on the pieces of the airplane to get them to align,” reports CNN.
The Times said Salehpour had worked at Boeing for over 10 years.
Salehpour’s lawyers describe him online as “a Quality Engineer with over 40 years of experience.”
The D.C.-based Katz Banks Kumin law firm confirmed in a post on X that Salehpour had become one of its clients.
“Debra Katz and Lisa Banks are representing Sam Salehpour, a Boeing whistleblower who reported serious concerns about Boeing’s manufacturing and quality control processes with its 787 and 777 planes,” the post said.
The firm has a history of representing people with claims like Salehpour’s.
It lists nearly two dozen “whistleblower successes” on its website.
#BREAKING: Debra Katz and Lisa Banks are representing Sam Salehpour, a Boeing whistleblower who reported serious concerns about Boeing’s manufacturing and quality control processes with its 787 and 777 planes. pic.twitter.com/InwAjpZc9V
— Katz Banks Kumin LLP (@katzbanks) April 9, 2024
Salehpour told the Times that the basic issue is that the pieces of the fuselage are manufactured at different facilities.
He said they aren’t always the same shape where they are supposed to be fitted together.
Salehpour says the company used to have a previous process, which was safer, before it was changed.
The company acknowledged those changes had been implemented.
However, Boeing denies that the changes caused a safety issue.
The new manufacturing process has had “no impact on the durability or safe longevity of the airframe,” company spokesman Paul Lewis told the Times.
A later statement from the company said that “these claims about the structural integrity of the 787 are inaccurate and do not represent the comprehensive work Boeing has done to ensure the quality and long-term safety of the aircraft.”
Boeing also said it was studying the entire aircraft for potential long-term safety issues.
However, the company claimed that even if such issues were identified, they would not represent an issue “for many years to come, if ever.”
In its statement on X, the engineer’s lawyers said he had brought the structural integrity issues to the attention of Boeing’s management.
Yet despite the gravity of the warnings, the issue was ignored because of the manufacturer’s focus on profits rather than safety.
The lawyers also claim that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is supposed to oversee airline safety, has been “too deferential to industry.”
“Endemic at Boeing is a culture where whistleblowers are retaliated against and sidelined,” the statement said.
“Despite repeated efforts to force our client to remain silent, he has continued to raise issues both internally and with the FAA
“It remains to be seen whether the FAA has the necessary will and resources to provide meaningful oversight over Boeing and the many different safety issues our client has raised,” it added.
Salehpour’s allegations come just a month after the mysterious sudden death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett.
Barnett was a long-time employee who made similar claims, including those of retaliation in a still unresolved lawsuit.
After making the explosive and damaging claims against Boeing, Barnett was found dead in his car in what appeared to be a “suicide.”
READ MORE – Boeing Whistleblower Warned before Death: ‘It’s NOT Suicide’
