Boeing has been under fire recently for its quality oversight, particularly following an incident where a piece of fuselage detached from a Boeing 737-9 Max shortly after takeoff. This led to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halting the expansion of 737 Max production and requesting Boeing to improve its quality controls.
In addition to this, a whistleblower at a Senate hearing claimed that many 787 aircraft had gaps between fuselage parts that were too high, potentially affecting the service life of the airplanes. Boeing denies these allegations.
During the construction of some of the 787 “Dreamliner” long-haul jets, there was an issue with the connection between the wings and the fuselage not being properly checked as it should have been. This led to an investigation by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to look into the matter further. It was found that Boeing employees had falsified test reports related to this issue, prompting a deeper investigation.
Boeing confirmed that checks on the connection between the fuselage and wings were skipped but were inaccurately recorded as completed. The company assured that this was not an immediate safety concern for the current fleet of airplanes and that no aircraft needed to be grounded. However, the FAA announced a new investigation to ensure all necessary inspections were conducted and to look into the allegations of forgery.
The company is now inspecting all 787s on the production lines and is developing a plan for those aircraft already in service. The issue was brought to light when a Boeing employee reported the violation of audit requirements to management. It was discovered that certain tests were skipped but falsely documented as completed by staff at
