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 Some 787 Production Test Records Were Falsified, Boeing Says

Sean Broderick May 06, 2024

 

Credit: Sean Broderick/AWST

Boeing must inspect undelivered and in-production 787s to ensure some steps in the aircraft’s assembly were done correctly after learning that required tests to validate the work were recorded as complete but never conducted.

A Boeing employee in the company’s South Carolina 787 final assembly facility “saw what appeared to be an irregularity in a required conformance test in wing-body join,” Scott Stocker, 787 vice president & general manager said in an April 29 email to employees that revealed the issue. The employee told his manager, who alerted “executive leadership,” the email said.

Boeing “quickly reviewed the matter” and determined “several people had been violating company policies by not performing a required test, but recording the work as having been completed.”

The manufacturer also “promptly” told the FAA, Stocker said.

Boeing “voluntarily informed us in April that it may not have completed required inspections to confirm adequate bonding and grounding where the wings join the fuselage on certain 787 Dreamliner airplanes,” the agency said. “The FAA is investigating whether Boeing completed the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records.”

Stocker said the required inspection “now needs to be conducted out of sequence on airplanes in the build process.” Checks will likely be required for the in-service fleet, but Boeing said it determined the issue does not pose any immediate safety risk.

“Boeing is reinspecting all 787 airplanes still within the production system and must also create a plan to address the in-service fleet,” the FAA said.

The immediate ramifications on delivery schedules is not clear. The re-checks “will impact our customers and factory teammates, because the test now needs to be conducted out of sequence on airplanes in the build process,” Stocker said.

Stocker’s email, revealed publicly May 6 following a Wall Street Journal story, lauded the employee for coming forward. The issue is an example of “the kind of behavior we will and will not accept as a team,” the email added.

The incident provides evidence that Boeing’s emphasis on spotlighting safety issues, even if they reflect poorly on the company, is paying dividends. It also underscores how far the company has to go, as falsification of safety-related records is arguably industry’s most egregious non-operational regulatory violation.

“It brings the entire production certificate (PC) into question,” said one former FAA official with extensive aircraft certification experience. “A PC is really an expression of trust. Considering all the [Boeing issues] bubbling up ... the FAA may have no choice but to assume the falsification is widespread.”