19 Apr 2024

Boeing whistleblower claims company 'putting out defective planes'

From Nine To Noon, 9:05 am on 19 April 2024

A Boeing engineer has given compelling testimony detailing his concerns about how Boeing aircraft are being put together.

Sam Salehpour, an engineer with four decades of experience - including 17 with Boeing, yesterday detailed alleged manufacturing shortcuts he felt were being made and how he was shut down by the company after raising them.

Boeing is already facing scrutiny after part of a new Boeing 737 Max 9 flown by Alaska Airlines broke off in January, and two deadly crashes of its 737 Max 8 planes in 2018 and 2019.

Mr Salehpour told a US congressional hearing the pieces making up Boeing's Dreamliner planes weren't being put together properly and that he'd seen people literally jumping on pieces of triple-7 (777) jets to make them fit.

Joining Kathryn is David Slotnick, a senior aviation business reporter at The Points Guy.

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 17: Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour arrives for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on investigations hearing titled "Boeing's broken safety culture, focusing on firsthand accounts" at the U.S. Capitol on April 17, 2024 in Washington, DC. In an interview with NBC News, Salehpour says that he thinks all 787 jets should be grounded to allow for proper safety checks of the plane, which has come under fire in recent months following a slew of incidents.   Kent Nishimura/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by Kent Nishimura / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

Photo: AFP/Getty Images