NEW YORK
\nBoeing defended its safety practices Monday, touting aircraft testing protocols as it girds for a tough congressional hearing featuring critics of the embattled aviation giant.
\n\u201cBoeing is confident in the safety and durability of the 787 and 777,\u201d the company said in a powerpoint presentation accompanying a media briefing with two senior engineers, who summarized exhaustive testing procedures to refute whistleblower allegations that some 1,400 Boeing planes suffer from significant safety issues.
\nWednesday\u2019s Senate hearing is scheduled to include testimony from Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour, who went public last week with sweeping charges alleging Boeing\u2019s safety practices are deficient and that the company retaliated against him for speaking out.
\nThe hearing, titled Examining Boeing\u2019s Broken Safety Culture: Firsthand Accounts, comes as regulators and politicians escalate scrutiny of Boeing in the wake of a near-disastrous January 5 Alaska Airlines flight on a 737 MAX that made an emergency landing after a panel of the fuselage blew out in mid-flight.
\nSalehpour\u2019s charges include allegations that the 787 Dreamliner contains gaps between parts well above company standards, a dynamic that could \u201cultimately cause a premature fatigue failure without any warning,\u201d creating unsafe conditions \u201cwith potentially catastrophic accidents,\u201d according to an official complaint to the Federal Aviation Administration released by Salehpour\u2019s attorneys.
\nSteve Chisholm, chief engineer for Boeing Mechanical and Structural Engineering, told reporters gathered at a Charleston, South Carolina factory and on a webcast, that \u201cthere was zero fatigue\u201d found in testing.
\n\u201cWe were not surprised by the lack of fatigue findings,\u201d said Chisholm, who noted that the composite materials behind the 787 were picked because they do not fatigue or corrode like traditional metals.
\nDescribed by his attorneys as a veteran quality engineer at Boeing, Salehpour slammed Boeing for a series of \u201cshortcuts\u201d that have \u201callowed potentially defective parts and installations in 787 fleets,\u201d according to the FAA complaint.
\nTo compensate for gaps between parts beyond the .005 inch standard set by Boeing, Salehpour said Boeing has employed force during assembly of 165 times the recommended level of 10 pounds.
\nAfter Salehpour\u2019s complaint last week, Boeing released a lengthy rebuttal insisting it is \u201cfully confident\u201d in the aircraft and noting that regulators with the FAA signed off on Boeing\u2019s processes when the company addressed the gap issue in 2022.
\nCompany engineers pointed to testing for plane fatigue undertaken between 2010 and 2015 involving 165,000 cycles, or simulations of 165,000 flights.
\nIn this process, a 787 was placed in a test rig and subjected to pressurization meant for a time period more than three times as long as the aircraft\u2019s expected 787 lifespan of 44,000 cycles.
\nCompany employees raised concerns about gaps and other aspects of the 787 in the 2020-2022 time period.
\nWith 787 deliveries suspended during large stretches of this span, the company removed thousands of fasteners on some 120 planes in inventory and conducted rework on eight planes, company officials said.
\nWhile Boeing maintains that around 99 percent of the gaps conform to the .005 inch standard, a small percentage exceeds it.
\nHowever, testing has shown no sign of fatigue, said Chisholm, who also described the elevated force during manufacturing as a non-issue.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re talking about 150 pounds on structure that\u2019s meant to carry many thousands of pounds of load. This is not a large load,\u201d Chisholm said. \u201cIt\u2019s acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK Boeing defended its safety practices Monday, touting aircraft testing protocols as it girds for a tough congressional hearing featuring critics of the embattled aviation giant. \u201cBoeing is confident in the safety and durability of the 787 and 777,\u201d the company said in a powerpoint presentation accompanying a media briefing with two senior engineers, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-400652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n