Posted on 05/27/2005 2:44:08 PM PDT by Righty_McRight
WICHITA, Kan. - Three senior Boeing Co. employees have filed a lawsuit against the aircraft manufacturer claiming the company ignored numerous defective parts used to build airplanes.
The three employees of Boeing's commercial aircraft division in Wichita brought the lawsuit in March on behalf of the U.S. government, alleging that Boeing was aware of nearly 2,000 defective parts from Ducommun Inc. of California used in 32 of the company's airplanes.
The lawsuit became public Thursday after the U.S. Justice Department completed its investigation.
A federal court filing said the parts ended up on $1.5 billion worth of planes delivered to the U.S. Air Force and Navy and foreign military forces, including ones in Japan, Italy, Turkey and Australia.
The lawsuit contends the parts did not pass minimum Federal Aviation Administration safety requirements and were used on 737s, 747s, 757s and 767s made in Wichita and delivered for sale from March 1998 through November 2004.
James Ailes of Wichita; Jeannine "Gigi" Prewitt of Derby; and Taylor Smith, now of Savannah, Ga., filed the lawsuit. Their attorney said they would not comment beyond the lawsuit.
Craig Martin, a spokesman for Boeing in Seattle, said corporate officials did not learn about the lawsuit until recently and could not comment on specifics.
"Boeing has a superb record of safety and a very high reputation with our customers," Martin said.
Ducommun executives were unavailable to comment, according to officials with the Carson, Calif., manufacturer of parts for numerous aircraft.
The lawsuit said in 1999 Boeing found Ducommun's documents for making the parts did not conform to FAA requirements.
A Boeing field representative wrote a report to suspend Ducommun's delivery of parts to the Wichita plant, the lawsuit says, but the computer report was deleted the next day.
"Ducommun continued to deliver bogus, defective and nonconforming parts to Boeing Wichita," according to the lawsuit.
Ailes, Smith and Prewitt claim in the lawsuit that Ducommun kept two sets of books for manufacturing parts - "fake books," for Boeing and the FAA and "real books" for Ducommun.
The three investigators say they "became the subjects of harassment, threats and intimidation" when they filed reports in 2000 criticizing Boeing's use of defective parts.
The lawsuit seeks at least $10,000 for each false claim made by Boeing to the U.S. government concerning the quality and safety of the aircraft.
No offense, Granny, but Boeing doesn't make 'small planes'; they make BIG planes! And - statistically speaking - per million miles flown very few of them 'fall out of the sky.'
- SE_AZ_Grandpa
Doh! I saw the reference to "Commercial Aircraft Division" and that's what stuck in my brain; the sentence you've supplied slipped under my radar somehow.
NJGent: Like the followup to an Emily Latella rant on SNL ...
"Oh! Never mind."
I was as confused as you. Perhaps the parts were in a military transport/tanker model.
I agree. This could be nothing more than problems with a certification of conformance or something similar.
As usual, the sensationalism of the subject implies airworthiness and/or safety problems yet we know no facts. I would strongly suspect the motives of these three employees (considering the hundreds or thousands that may be familiar with the issue). What exactly drove them to this revelation? That is a key part of this story yet to be told.
By the way. These three worked at one of the plants that Boeing is trying to sell to Onex. They might of lost their jobs in the deal.
Maybe they're complaining as a proxy to the whining french. They got real quiet suddenly.
Now the military division is essentially McDonnell-Douglas, once headed by Harry "Dipstick" Stonecipher, a man wihout scruple or ethics. What to say?
Now I am a Boeing employee but my division is about to be sold to UTC.
--Boris
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.