A Boeing whistleblower will be the key witness at a U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing on Boeing safety problems.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who chairs the committee, said Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour is concerned that the company is manufacturing 787 aircrafts in a way that could weaken the plane's fuselage over time.
“Salehpour will talk about the fastening of parts of the 787 fuselage in a way that is potentially unsafe because those parts come apart with airline fatigue. That is the wear and tear of repeated use,” Blumenthal said at a news briefing at the state Legislative Office Building in Hartford on Friday.
“He will also talk about retaliation against him when he complained to Boeing,” Blumenthal added.
“As deeply troubling as the allegations are about the failure to put safety and quality above profits, the threat and acts of retaliation are equally troubling,” he said.
The committee’s hearing is also in response to a January incident in which a door plug separated mid-flight from a Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines.
Blumenthal expects Boeing to cooperate with the investigation.
