NOS News•today, 2:32 PM
A former employee of Spirit AeroSystems, which, among other things, makes fuselages for aircraft manufacturer Boeing, says that aircraft parts regularly leave the factory with “at least 200 defects”. According to whistleblower Santiago Paredes, Boeing was always aware of this. Paredes has previously reported this to authorities, but is now public for the first time with an interview with the BBC and CBS.
Paredes worked at Spirit from 2010 to 2022 as a quality employee. He is one of the employees who had to check whether there were any defects in parts before they went to Boeing, where the aircraft were completed.
Spirit AeroSystems builds fuselages for the Boeing 737 and 787 types and the cockpit for almost all Boeing aircraft. The company in the American state of Kansas was once part of Boeing, but in 2005 it continued as its own company. This allowed it to expand its base by, for example, also taking on Airbus as a customer. However, the largest customer always remained Boeing.
Bad culture
According to Paredes, that is also one of the reasons why the defective parts were able to leave the factory. Spirit’s leadership stayed on after the Boeing sale and continued to maintain the same culture, Paredes said. According to him, the culture was always bad and it only got worse after the sale.
For example, he was pressured by management to carry out less strict inspections. “They didn’t focus on the quality of the parts, but mainly on the financial picture and the numbers. I think that’s what allowed this to happen.”
In the twelve years he worked there, he says he became accustomed to dozens of defects per aircraft part. “I discovered many missing fasteners, many hidden defects and sometimes even missing parts,” the whistleblower told the American news channel and English broadcaster.
Research
Paredes admits that he too has made mistakes, but also says that Boeing must have known about the defects in the parts. Boeing has not yet responded to the whistleblower’s interview. Spirit AeroSystems says it will “vigorously defend itself” against the allegations.
Both Spirit AeroSystems and Boeing were investigated by the American aviation authority FAA after a door panel came loose from a brand new Boeing 737 Max in January this year. The plane had to make an emergency landing because the door panel had fallen off.
The investigation revealed that the panel had been assembled at Spirit’s factory with screws. These were removed by Boeing technicians because the screws turned out to be broken. The latter doesn’t seem to have happened properly either.
The Boeing with a loose door panel had to make an emergency landing:
Alaska Airlines plane loses fuselage part during flight
Since the investigations, error after error has been discovered with Boeing aircraft. Just today, a plane went off the runway in Senegal, injuring ten people. Furthermore, passengers of a Boeing in Alanya, Turkey, were stranded after a flat tire at the airport. Both incidents are under investigation.
Furthermore, since January, a wheel has fallen off an aircraft, dozens of passengers were injured when a Dreamliner had to make a diving movement during take-off, an emergency slide came loose and there were problems with braking on an aircraft.
Two fatal accidents involving a Boeing aircraft in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people. The Boeing 737 Max suffered from technical problems.
Former employees of both Boeing and Spirit regularly open up about all the defects, both about aircraft yet to be built and Boeings that have already been completed. A new investigation was opened by the American Aviation Authority on Tuesday after a Boeing employee reported that required checks on aircraft at the airport are not being carried out, even though they are being checked off by employees.
