A new Boeing whistleblower has revealed that the aerospace's 787 and 777 Dreamliner could possibly "break apart" midair after thousands of flight travels.
Sam Salehpour, a former engineer of Boeing, claimed that poor production process in the assembly line risks the plane's fuselage falling apart into "several pieces" just after a few thousand cycles.
For perspective, a standard commercial plane can be used for a little over two decades, or at least 100,000 cycles, before being retired. The 787 and 777 jets were only released in 2011.
Salehpour is the second Boeing engineer to testify against the company this year after the first whistleblower, former quality manager John Barnett, died of a supposed self-inflicted gunshot wound. The New York Times first reported Salehpour's statements.
Boeing disputed Salehpour's statements as nothing but "inaccurate," claiming that it is confident with its planes' safety.
Boeing Under Multiple Federal Investigations
The Federal Aviation Agency has already launched its own investigation into the 787 and 777 Dreamliner jets following the latest set of accusations.
The probe is separate from another federal investigation into the 737-800 aircraft after one of the planes under the Southwest Airlines blew its engine cover shortly after takeoff just last week.
Or the much earlier 737 MAX 9 probe which found several safety flaws in Boeing and its manufacturing material provider', Spirit Aerosystems, production process.
The US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are also conducting their own criminal investigation on the company in relation to the 737 MAX 9 incident.
The total number of planes affected by the safety probe numbers up to thousands across multiple airlines operating in the US and other countries.
Boeing Embroiled in Safety Scrutiny
Since the disastrous Flight 1282 last January where one of Boeing's planes blew off its door plug panel midflight, the company has been in hot water from airlines and regulators.
Following the safety fiasco in the company, several major airline executives have reportedly met with Boeing to discuss the plane manufacturer's plans to improve safety of its jets, sources told Reuters.
The company has already been sued and pushed into an agreement to improve the safety of its planes several times since 2015.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun has since announced to step down from the company's leadership by the end of the year amidst controversies.
Calhoun replaced ex-CEO Dennis Muilenburg after he was fired from an earlier controversy involving two Boeing 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 passengers.
Boeing's stock prices have plunged by 29.86% to $174.63 per share since the first incident last Jan. 5, with the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.
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