Posted on 06/18/2024 11:14:59 AM PDT by Red Badger
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s office on Tuesday said a current Boeing employee has come forward as a whistleblower, an announcement that comes hours before the airplane manufacturer’s chief executive is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill.
The senator’s office identified the employee as Sam Mohawk, a quality assurance inspector for Boeing in Renton, Washington.
Mohawk alleges that Boeing is cutting corners by losing track of parts that have been labeled as non-conforming or not up to design standards, according to Blumenthal. Sometimes these parts get a second chance because they can be fixed or were mislabeled, but often they should be discarded. Still, the parts sometimes end up in newly built airplanes, Mohawk said, according to the senator.
“He said that he has been told by his supervisors to conceal this evidence from the FAA, and that he is being retaliated against as well,” Blumenthal said in a statement.
A Boeing spokesperson said the company had received on Monday evening the documents supplied to Blumenthal by the whistleblower. The company is reviewing the claims now, the spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“We continuously encourage employees to report all concerns as our priority is to ensure the safety of our airplanes and the flying public,” the spokesperson said.
The latest whistleblower is stepping forward as Boeing CEO David Calhoun prepares to sit for a Senate hearing on his company’s “broken safety culture” on Tuesday afternoon. Previous whistleblowers have accused the Arlington, Virginia-headquartered company of cutting corners on safety practices as it builds aircraft.
Blumenthal in his opening statement during Tuesday’s hearing is expected to press Calhoun on whether the executive has made progress turning the company around.
The senator will mention the incident in January when a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 shortly after takeoff. He’ll say that the “façade quite literally blew off the hollow shell that had been Boeing’s promises to the world,” according to excerpts of his prepared remarks viewed by ABC News.
“Mr. Calhoun, you were brought in turn this company around,” Blumenthal is expected to say, according to his prepared remarks. “But instead of asking what has caused Boeing’s safety culture to erode, you and your colleagues in the C-suite have deflected blame, looked the other way, and catered to your shareholders instead.”
Calhoun in January said Boeing was “accountable for what happened” during the Alaska flight.
“Whatever the specific cause of the accident might turn out to be, an event like this must simply not happen on an airplane that leaves one of our factories,” he said at the time. “We simply must be better. Our customers deserve better.”
“Aaaaaaaaand, he’s dead.”
Movie's about contract kilers, for those who haven't seen...
Reference to previous Boeing whistleblowers "dying suddenly" or having "accidents".
Odd how that ‘happens’........................
Meanwhile Boeing’s Starliner is leaking like a sieve while docked at the international space station after it took multiple failed launches for leaks before it finally took off.
Prayers up. 🙏🏻🙏🏻
“If it’s Boeing, I’m not going!”
Maybe we should ask what Antonin Scalia he thinks...
Sam, we hardly knew ya.
Sam Mohawk did not commit suicide next week................
I vote vehicle accident, though they could go full Russkie and go with nerve agent, ricin or polonium in the tea or just plain old defenestration.
There’s always snakebite................
True, got to be creative.
I cannot wait to buy Boeing on the next big market pullback.
It’s down 30%, Airbus is up 30%.
Meanwhile Airbus will be grounding hundreds of A330’s this year, next year and maybe the year after over engine woes.
The hate Boeing campaign is going to earn me quite a few dollars.
I get that the Euro reporting system is crap but the notion that a 60% reversal in cap value is warranted is hilarious and only possible thanks to this ridiculous campaign.
PS they have/had thousands and thousands if not tens of thousands of whistle blowers. It’s the nature of any major project.
LOL.
With dumb Bell & DEI employees even the Boeing brand becomes the butt of jokes.
(I am not suicidal, just for the record.)
“DEI” is, at it’s lowest common denominator, the ENEMY of meritocracy.
Marxist Democrats have destroyed public schools and now need DEI to cover their past 50 years destruction (of public schools) up thus companies like Boeing and our Military have few competent people in the prospective employee pool.
“broken safety culture”
There are only two ways (I can think of) these issues can come up in the certified aircraft world.
ONE. Someone is lying.
Two. Someone is forging inspection reports.
True.
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