Boeing Whistleblower Calls for 'Criminal Investigation': 'These Planes Are Not Safe'
A Boeing whistleblower is calling for a criminal investigation into the aircraft manufacturer in the wake of several high-profile incidents caused by safety and quality issues at the company.
May 30 2024, Published 4:00 p.m. ET
A Boeing whistleblower is calling for a criminal investigation into the aircraft manufacturer in the wake of several high-profile incidents caused by safety and quality issues at the company, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Ed Pierson, a former senior manager at Boeing who now serves as the director of the Foundation of Aviation Safety, told BBC Radio 4, claimed, "What really needs to happen, as we have said before, is there needs to be a full criminal investigation because these airplanes are not safe. They are still not safe," per Daily Mail.
In late February, federal regulators gave the company 90 days to come up with and present a turnaround plan to fix the persistent safety issues.
After a jetliner suffered a blowout of a fuselage panel at an altitude of 16,000 feet during an Alaska Airlines flight in January, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily grounded Boeing's 737 Max 9 fleet.
In late February, federal regulators gave the company 90 days to come up with and present a turnaround plan to fix the persistent safety issues. The deadline is today, May 30.
"It’s going to be a long road to get Boeing back to where they need to be, making safe airplanes,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker told ABC News last week, promising "continuing aggressive oversight of the company" to ensure that it "won't be back to business as usual for Boeing."
"It's going to take a lot of work and I've heard lots of broken promises, so until we see action that actually matches the words," Pierson said.
"It's going to take a lot of work and I've heard lots of broken promises, so until we see action that actually matches the words," Pierson said, suggesting that Boeing may have requested an extension after failing to meet the FAA's deadline.
"We had an emergency just last week," he added. "Another Max Air plane had an emergency landing in Denver because of an electrical motor failure. We've seen many of those. We need to stop and do the job properly."
Pierson told The LA Times earlier this year he "would absolutely not fly a Max airplane ... I've worked in the factory where they were built, and I saw the pressure employees were under to rush the planes out the door. I tried to get them to shut down before the first crash."
Boeing reached a $2.5 billion settlement in January 2021 after two 737 Max jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.
Boeing reached a $2.5 billion settlement in January 2021 after two 737 Max jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people, but the Justice Department said two weeks ago that Boeing may have violated the terms of the settlement that allowed the company to avoid prosecution for fraud.
The FAA also recently opened a new inquiry into "whether Boeing completed the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records" after it emerged that staff may have skipped some inspections of 787 Dreamliners.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, 50 passengers were injured when a "technical" issue caused a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to drop mid-air on LATAM Airlines flight LA800 from Sydney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand in March.
Two Boeing whistleblower were recently found dead in the span of two months, but no foul play is suspected.
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Two Boeing whistleblower were recently found dead in the span of two months, but no foul play is suspected.
Police ruled that John Barnett, 62, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in March, while Joshua Dean, 45, passed away from a sudden illness in May.
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