‘No safety culture’: Hundreds could die if Boeing fails to address jet safety, alleges whistleblower

Engineer Sam Salehpour fears ‘physical violence’ for going public

Hundreds could lose their lives if Boeing fails to address a lack of safety protocols, a whistleblower warned US Congress on Wednesday.

Sam Salehpour, an engineer at the jet maker, testified that the company is taking shortcuts in assembling 787 Dreamliners leaving sections of the aircraft’s skin vulnerable to breaking apart.

He told a high-profile hearing on Capitol Hill that he feared “physical violence” after going public with his concerns and had been “berated” and “chewed out” by his boss.

Senators are examining allegations of major safety failures at the embattled manufacturer, which has been pushed into crisis mode since a door blew out of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max jetliner shortly after take-off in January.

“They are putting out defective airplanes,” Mr Salehpour told members of an investigative subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

He added that workers would struggle to bridge the joints in the planes’ mechanisms, and would sometimes use blunt force.

“I literally saw people jumping on pieces of the airplane to get them to align,” he said.

“I call it the Tarzan effect.”

Boeing 737 Max door blows out
AP

Mr Salehpour went on to claim there is “no safety culture” at Boeing and alleged employees who raise the alarm are “ignored, marginalised, threatened, sidelined, and worse”.

He recalls receiving calls on his personal phone, including from his boss.

“For 40 minutes, he kind of berated me and chewed me out,” Mr Salehpour says.

“It really scares me, believe me. But I am at peace ... I feel like by coming forward, I will be saving a lot of lives. Whatever happens, happens.”

Senator Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat who chairs the committee, asked him to describe the verbal threats he received at work.

Mr Salehpour said after flagging safety issues: “Someone told me they would have killed someone like me if they [were to] say something like that.

“My boss said: ‘I would have killed someone who said what you said in the meeting’.

“This is not safety culture, when you get threatened by bringing issues of safety concerns.”

Boeing Employees Testify On Safety Culture At The Manufacturer During Senate Hearing
Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour speaks at committee hearing
Getty Images

A Boeing spokesman said the company is cooperating with the lawmakers’ inquiry and offered to provide documents or briefings.

It said claims made by Mr Salehpour were “inaccurate” and that it was confident its planes were safe.

Officials also previously dismissed his allegation he saw workers jump on 777 fuselage parts to make them align.

Boeing, one of the world’s two major producers of commercial planes, said last week: “The issues raised have been subject to rigorous engineering examination under [Federal Aviation Administration] oversight.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in