Boeing confirms no fatigue cracks found in older 787 aircraft during maintenance checks

Boeing has hit back at whistleblower allegations that its planes are flawed ahead of a Senate hearing on Wednesday. 

Two Boeing engineer executives issued a robust defense of how the company’s 787 Dreamliner is constructed during a media briefing on Monday. 

The suggested the plane’s carbon-composite panels are immune to metal fatigue that often weaken traditional aluminum fuselages. 

Steve Chisholm, Boeing’s vice president of structural engineering, stated that the safety of 787s was tested by replicating 165,000 flights, with no signs of fatigue found in the composite structure.

This statement follows Boeing whistleblower Sam Salehpour’s recent claims of witnessing individuals jumping on airplane components to align them, which Salehpour criticized as an improper method of aircraft construction.

Salehpour, a former Boeing engineer of more than ten years, is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill regarding his allegations.

Boeing has faced enormous scrutiny since a faulty door plug on an Alaska Airlines 787 Max 9 plane blew out at 16,000 feet in January.  A month later, three passengers on that flight filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Boeing and Alaska Airlines.

Salehpour is the latest in a line of Boeing whistleblowers to come forward to raise safety concerns. 

Former Boeing staffer John Barnett, 62, raised concerns about under-pressure workers deliberately fitting sub-standard parts to aircraft on the assembly line earlier this year. 

After alleging his bosses were spying on him, Barnett then committed suicide under mysterious circumstances in early March.

Meanwhile, Boeing is in damage control mode. The plane maker has strongly disputed Salehpour’s claim people were jumping on panels to snap them into place. 

The company put out a statement last week expressing its full confidence in the 787 Dreamliner, a widebody jet often used for international flights, while calling concerns about its structural integrity ‘inaccurate.’

The company said the actual way the fuselage is put together is through adding shims to fill gaps. 

Additionally, fasteners are attached to apply what’s called a ‘pull-up force’ that the company claims results in gaps the width of a human hair, about .005 inches, 99% of the time.

But issues with the Dreamliner model go back to at least 2021, when the FAA and Boeing halted deliveries of the plane while it looked into tiny gaps in the fuselage that were wider than Boeing allowed. 

A little over a week ago, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 was forced to make an emergency landing at Denver International Airport after part of the engine blew off.

In March, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 landed in Portland with its cargo door slightly open. Passengers’ luggage and pets were down below but Boeing said no harm came to the animals. 

The Senate is holding dual hearings about Boeing safety concerns on Wednesday. 

First, the Senate Commerce Committee will hear from three aviation experts from MIT, NASA and the University of Southern California who will speak about what improvements Boeing can make.

A Senate subcommittee led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal is meeting the same day to speak with Salehpour after the whistleblower reached out to the senator’s office last month.

Blumenthal has also requested that outgoing Boeing CEO David Calhoun make an appearance, but there’s no update on whether that will happen. 

These hearings come as the FAA has mandated that Boeing develop a sound quality control plan for its suite of aircrafts by next month.