A former Boeing employee claims the company has ignored warnings about production defects with its aircraft.
John Barnett spent 30 years at the under-fire airline company, overseeing aircraft production and carrying out safety checks until he retired in 2017.
“Once you understand what’s happening inside of Boeing, you’ll see why we’re seeing these kinds of issues,” Mr Barnett told the ABC and reported on abc.net.au
“This is a Boeing issue. This is not a 737 issue.”
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded 171 Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes after a faulty door plug led to a piece of fuselage detaching mid-flight earlier this month.
It was announced this week that some of the grounded MAX 9 planes are about to resume flying.
“Their culture is all about speed and production and getting aeroplanes out the door. And any issues, any concerns that you bring up are going to slow them down,” Mr Barnett added.
Mr Barnett said he reported several safety issues to his superiors at the company, including defective parts going missing and allegedly being installed on aircraft without first being repaired, according to the article on abc.net.au
He later took his concerns to the FAA, who investigated and substantiated Mr Barnett’s complaint that Boeing had lost track of hundreds of faulty parts which could not be found.
Boeing will face more scrutiny when it releases its quarterly earnings this week.
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