Boeing on Monday sought to reassure the public about the safety of its 787 Dreamliner planes, days before a whistleblower is scheduled to testify before Congress about concerns about the plane's structural integrity.
During a press briefing at the North Charleston, South Carolina, plant where the plane is assembled, two of Boeing's top engineers said the company had conducted thorough testing, inspection and analysis of the plane both during development and in recent years. , stated that the following was found. There is no evidence that the body fails prematurely.
The presentation came less than a week after the New York Times reported on whistleblower Sam Salepour's allegations. Salepour works as a quality engineer for Boeing and is scheduled to testify before a Senate committee on Wednesday. Salepour said parts of the Dreamliner's fuselage, which is a wide-body, composite-heavy aircraft, are not properly secured, and as a result, the aircraft could suffer structural failure over time. Stated. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating his charges.
Salepour's claims quickly created a new public relations problem for Boeing. The company has faced increased scrutiny over its manufacturing practices after a panel on a 737 MAX came off during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
Salepour said the gaps where the Dreamliner's fuselage sections are secured together do not necessarily meet Boeing's specifications, which could weaken the plane over time. Boeing engineers, who did not name him, disagreed with his assessment. The aircraft underwent extensive testing and clearances were found to meet specifications in most cases, they said. Even if the gap exceeds specifications by a significant amount, it will not affect the aircraft's durability, the engineers added.
“We not only inspected the airframe, but also removed fasteners, looked for damage, and performed approval inspections to understand manufacturing conditions and found no fatigue issues with the composite structure. '' said Steve Chisholm, Boeing vice president and functional chief engineer, Mechanical and Structural Engineering.
Chisholm said the company conducted extensive testing on the Dreamliner and found no evidence of fatigue in the jet's composite structure. The 787's airframe was tested for 165,000 “flight cycles,” or the equivalent of many flights, of pressurization and decompression. He said this far exceeded the plane's expected lifespan, and the plane still showed no signs of fatigue.
The 787 with the most cycles is owned by Japanese airline All Nippon Airways, which took delivery of the plane in late 2012, Boeing said. The aircraft has undergone approximately 16,500 cycles, the company said.
In a statement Monday, Mr. Salepour's attorney, Debra S. Katz, urged caution in accepting Boeing's claims about the Dreamliner as fact.
“We can't speak or react to data we haven't seen, but Boeing has always said, 'Just trust us,' when it comes to safety,” Katz said. . “It is clear that the standards are no longer sufficient, and the data provided by Boeing should be verified by independent experts and the FAA before being taken at face value.”
Salepour is scheduled to testify Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on Investigations. Separately, on the same day, the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing with experts involved in writing a recent FAA report that criticized Boeing's safety culture.
Boeing began investigating the Dreamliner's gap issues about five years ago, ultimately finding that the space between adjacent sections of the fuselage did not meet its own specifications of less than five-thousandths of an inch thick. discovered. As a result, the company paused deliveries for approximately 18 months to inspect the process and aircraft and make changes if necessary. The work involved removing thousands of fasteners from airplanes in inventory and inspecting the size of the gap between the two materials that each fastener joins.
According to the company, approximately 1% of all gaps inspected did not meet specifications. The company also said that research and testing over the past several years has determined that larger gaps do not pose a threat to the long-term durability of the aircraft.
The company noted that 671 Dreamliners had undergone six years of thorough maintenance and eight had undergone 12 years of inspections, and said no signs of premature fatigue were found during any of the inspections. Boeing said it does not believe modifications are needed to the Dreamliners currently operated by its customers.