(Reuters) -Boeing said on Monday it has found no fatigue cracks on in-service 787 planes that have undergone intensive maintenance, as the planemaker defended the twin-aisle jet program ahead of a U.S. Senate hearing. United on Wednesday.
Last week, a Boeing (NYSE:) whistleblower alleged that the company dismissed safety concerns about the assembly of its 787 and 777 airplanes flying international routes. The whistleblower, Boeing quality engineer Sam Salehpour, will testify at the Senate hearing on the company's safety culture.
Salehpour has claimed that Boeing did not properly fit or use a thin piece of material to fill small gaps in a manufactured product, an omission that could cause premature fatigue failure over time in some areas of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
His claims, which are being investigated by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), include comments that he saw workers “jumping on parts of the plane to align them.”
Boeing has been grappling with a full-blown safety crisis that has undermined its reputation following the Jan. 5 mid-air panel explosion on a single-aisle 737 MAX plane.
In a call with reporters on Monday, two senior Boeing officials said there were no findings of fuselage fatigue among the nearly 700 Dreamliner planes in service that have undergone extensive maintenance inspections after six and 12 years.
“All of these results have been shared with the FAA,” said Steve Chisholm, Boeing's chief engineer for mechanical and structural engineering.
Boeing halted deliveries of the 787 widebody aircraft for more than a year, until August 2022, while the FAA investigated quality issues and manufacturing defects.
In 2021, Boeing said that some 787 airplanes had shims that were not the proper size and that some airplanes had areas that did not meet skin flatness specifications.
The 787, which was launched in 2004, had a clearance specification of five thousandths of an inch within a five-inch area, or “the thickness of a human hair,” said Lisa Fahl, vice president of aircraft programs at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. . engineering.
He said reports of workers jumping on airplane parts “were not part of our process.”
Salehpour's attorney, Debra Katz, said in an emailed statement that her client tried for years to see data that addressed her concerns about the safety of the 787 breaches.
“Any information provided by Boeing must be validated by independent experts and the FAA before it is taken at face value,” Katz said.
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