Following Boeing’s notification to aviation safety regulators that it might have neglected to adequately check its 787 Dreamliner aircraft, the struggling jet manufacturer has been the subject of a fresh inquiry by the United States. Boeing is re-inspecting all 787 aircraft currently in production in response to the announcement by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that it would investigate allegations of record falsification by Boeing employees. The FAA has also ordered Boeing to create a “action plan” to fix problems with current aircraft.
Within Boeing, last week, employees were notified that the “misconduct” did not constitute a “immediate safety of flight issue.” In an email to employees, Scott Stocker—head of the Boeing 787 program—stated that multiple people had broken company policy by marking work as done without actually doing the necessary test.
According to the FAA, Boeing voluntarily notified them last month on possible incomplete inspections that were needed to confirm electrical safety on specific 787 Dreamliners were adequate. The purpose of the investigation is to ascertain whether Boeing actually conducted the inspections and whether any personnel tampered with the aircraft records.
This tragedy compounds Boeing’s current issues. A Boeing 737 Max 9 was subject to heightened scrutiny over its production and safety procedures after an unoccupied emergency escape door blew off the plane shortly after takeoff in January. Legal and regulatory concerns were heightened as a result of the incident, which temporarily grounded numerous planes.
Problems have arisen for Boeing following the 2018 and 2019 crashes of two 737 Max planes, which killed 346 people. The incidents prompted attempts to change Boeing’s company culture in order to promote problem reporting and resulted in the dismissal of then-CEO Dennis Muilenburg.
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