The manufacturer of a door plug that flew off the cabin of an Alaska Airlines flight and fell 16,000 feet onto an Oregon man's property was the subject of a recent class action lawsuit alleging “pervasive and persistent quality defects.”
The federal lawsuit against Spirit AeroSystems was filed less than a month after Friday's ill-fated mid-air emergency involving a Boeing 737 MAX 9. NBC News reported.
Investors in the company, a major supplier of fuselage parts to Boeing, emphasized the importance of the 737 MAX program following fatal crashes involving the 737 MAX in 2018 and 2019, the paper said. It is said that he was doing so.
These crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed a combined 346 people, resulted in a temporary grounding of jet flights worldwide and raised concerns about Boeing's quality control and safety, the report said. points out.
The complaint alleges that Spirit AeroSystems promised process improvements and safety measures but “hid from investors that Spirit suffered from widespread and persistent quality deficiencies.” .
Although the filing does not specifically mention the door plug, the part is attached to the fuselage, NBC News noted.
The lawsuit alleges the “routine presence of foreign object debris” in Spirit AeroSystems' products, missing zippers and peeling paint, and says the defects are the result of a culture that prioritizes production and profits over quality control. It is claimed that
The lawsuit also mentions the mistake in drilling holes in the plane's aft pressure bulkhead, which Spirit AeroSystems' quality auditors identified in October 2022 as a “very serious issue.” It is said that
The filing alleges that Spirit AeroSystems covered up problems with a bulkhead needed to maintain cabin pressure after they were reported.
The complaint says Boeing announced in August that it had identified “fastener holes in the aft pressure bulkhead of some 737 aircraft that do not meet our specifications.”
The company's quality deficiencies were so severe and persistent that Boeing placed the company on probation from 2018 to 2021, according to the complaint.
Spirit AeroSystems investors received information in March 2022 that employees were allegedly instructed to falsify documents to underreport the number of defects in the company's products, NBC News reported.
“I have lost faith in the quality control organization here at Spirit. This is my final cry for help in resolving this issue,” the employee said in an email.
Spirit AeroSystems did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News, but in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch, the company said it “strongly disagrees with the plaintiffs' allegations in the amended complaint.” “We intend to vigorously defend against this claim.” Spirit will not comment further regarding pending litigation. ”
The complaint was originally filed in federal court in May and amended in December. According to CBS News. We are not affiliated with Spirit Airlines.
The Post contacted the company Thursday.
A Boeing spokesperson told NBC News that the company has nothing to add regarding the lawsuit.
“We are committed to ensuring that all Boeing aircraft meet design specifications and the highest safety and quality standards,” Boeing said Monday in a statement about the Alaska Airlines crash.
Fighting back tears, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun “admitted our mistake'' in causing the horrific crash, which left none of the 177 passengers and crew seriously injured.
“We're going to approach this. … We're going to work on it with 100% and complete transparency every step of the way,” Calhoun told employees Tuesday during a meeting at a Boeing 737 factory near Seattle. told the staff.
Calhoun also said CNBC When asked about increased scrutiny of Spirit AeroSystems, Boeing said, “We're not going to point fingers at that.”
“Yes, it escaped from their factory, but then it escaped from our factory as well,” he added.
The National Transportation Safety Board later announced that hardware meant to secure the plane's fuselage panels, which was not actually installed, may have caused the accident.
