Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour told lawmakers that the company was cutting corners in assembling the 787 and 777 planes, and that his superiors retaliated against him for blowing the whistle. (Photo courtesy of Senator Hawley’s Press Office)
A Senate subcommittee said a new Boeing whistleblower alleges that the company’s planes were “likely to have been fitted with parts determined to be damaged or substandard,” raising the possibility of a “catastrophic event.”
The revelations by current Boeing employee Sam Mohawk, a quality assurance inspector at the company’s Renton, Washington, manufacturing facility, come as the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is scheduled to question Boeing CEO David Calhoun on Tuesday afternoon about safety concerns allegedly linked to the plane maker’s manufacturing practices.
“The new whistleblower, current Boeing employee Sam Mohawk, alleges that Boeing improperly recorded, tracked and stored damaged and substandard parts that likely ended up on aircraft,” the subcommittee said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Mohawk also alleges that his superiors instructed him to conceal evidence from the FAA and that he was retaliated against as a result,” it added.
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A person walks past an unpainted Boeing 737-8 MAX parked at Renton Municipal Airport, adjacent to the Boeing Factory, in Renton, Washington, on January 25, 2024. (Jason Redmond/AFP/via Getty Images)
“Whistleblower reports spanning more than a decade have raised questions about Boeing’s ability to source and track aircraft parts in a timely manner and to prevent damaged or unsuitable parts (‘non-conforming parts’) from being used in aircraft production,” the document released by the subcommittee on Tuesday said.
“At Boeing, if a part is determined to be ‘non-compliant,’ it is marked with a red tag or red paint and stored in a secure area within the factory called the Material Safety Isolation Area (‘MRSA’),” the company said.
| Ticker | safety | last | change | change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BA | Boeing | 178.39 | +1.12 | +0.63% |
But according to the subcommittee, Mohawk approached lawmakers in May and told them he had “witnessed a systematic disregard for documentation and accountability for non-conforming parts at Boeing’s Renton factory where the 737 MAX is built.”
“Mohawk was concerned that a non-compliant part had been installed on the 737 which could lead to a catastrophic event,” the document said, adding that he had filed a complaint about the matter with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) last week.
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Boeing CEO David Calhoun leaves a meeting with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) on Capitol Hill on Jan. 24, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc / via Getty Images)
The complaint, made public on Tuesday, states that “non-conforming parts cannot be used on aircraft unless there is an engineering procedure providing approval” and that “Mohawk believes many of the missing parts were illegally installed on aircraft.”
“Mohawk alleges that the Renton plant failed to properly manage non-conforming parts and that the company “deliberately concealed” them.[ing] The subcommittee also said that “during one on-site investigation, the FAA discovered improperly stored parts.”
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A Boeing 737 MAX aircraft is parked at the company’s production facility in Renton, Washington in November 2020. (David Ryder/Getty Images)
Boeing said in a statement to FOX Business that it received the documents late Monday and is “reviewing the allegations.”
A Boeing spokesman added: “Our top priority is ensuring the safety of our planes and our customers, and we continue to encourage employees to report any concerns.”
“This is a culture that continues to put profits first, push boundaries and disregard working people,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
“It’s a culture where those who speak out are silenced and pushed aside, and where the responsibility is pushed onto the factory floor,” Blumenthal added in a statement. “It’s a culture that enables retribution against those who don’t follow profits. This culture must be urgently repaired.”
Workers perform maintenance on a Boeing 737 MAX aircraft at a factory in Renton, Washington, in March 2019. (Jason Redmond/AFP/via Getty Images)
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Calhoun’s congressional testimony is scheduled to begin Tuesday at 2 p.m.
Fox News’ Kelly Phares contributed to this report.
