Senate report details aviation whistleblowers’ safety concerns

WASHINGTON — The chairwoman of the Senate committee that oversees aviation called for a “course correction” Monday after releasing whistleblower accounts from inside Boeing, the Federal Aviation Administration and General Electric alleging flaws in how big manufacturers handle safety.

In a letter to Federal Aviation Administration head Stephen Dickson, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., urged the agency to tighten its oversight of Boeing and other aviation firms, using powers Congress handed the agency in a law passed about a year ago.

“Together, these allegations illustrate the importance of a course correction that puts safety first and listens to the voices of line engineers,” she wrote.

The Senate Commerce Committee released the report Monday collecting accounts from seven aviation whistleblowers that detail concerns about the way the government holds the industry to account for safety. The accounts tie back to the development of Boeing’s 737 Max and 787 jets and detail issues some whistleblowers say have persisted despite the spotlight on Boeing and the FAA after two Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.

The FAA said it is implementing the new law and already is subjecting manufacturers to more stringent oversight.

“The agency takes all whistleblower allegations seriously and does not tolerate retaliation against those who raise safety concerns,” the agency said in a statement. “Today, we delegate fewer responsibilities to manufacturers and demand more transparency from them as part of our continuous pursuit of enhancing aviation safety.”

Boeing said in a statement that many of the issues raised in the report had previously been publicly disclosed and that the company had worked with the FAA to address them.

“Safety and quality are Boeing’s highest priorities, and Boeing teammates are encouraged to speak up whenever they have safety or quality concerns,” the company said.

The whistleblowers’ accounts informed the drafting of an overhaul of aviation safety laws passed by Congress in December 2020. Cantwell reiterated to Dickson that the FAA needs to live up to lawmakers’ expectations and hit deadlines set in the legislation.

“In recognition of the whistleblowers’ important information sharing, I request that you review each allegation thoroughly, and where warranted, open an investigation to determine whether conduct is contrary to FAA policies and procedures,” Cantwell wrote.

The report highlights that the law required the FAA to analyze whether it has the necessary technical expertise to carry out its responsibilities, but that the agency missed a September deadline for a workforce review. At a hearing last Month, Dickson told Cantwell the agency would “evaluate” its engineering staffing.

“This is the language I don’t like,” Cantwell said. “OK, we had a deadline. We would have loved to see an assessment of the workforce. Something that would have said to Congress, ‘Here’s where we think we’re coming up short, here’s what we think we need to do.’”

While the 737 Max has been authorized to fly again for more than a year, lawmakers who oversee the safety of flying have continued to scrutinize Boeing and its relationship with the FAA, focusing on production problems with the 787. The bipartisan leadership of the House Transportation Committee wrote to the Transportation Department’s inspector general in November asking for an investigation.

The problems are rippling into the broader industry: Last week, American Airlines said delays in 787s being delivered from Boeing meant it would have to trim its international schedule next summer.

The new Senate report sets forth an account covering more than a decade by Martin Bickeböller, a senior Boeing engineer who alleged that pressure on production staff working on the 787 led to quality problems. Bickeböller identified supply chain issues for the new jet as early as 2008, according to the report, which said he came to think Boeing was interested primarily “in a quick resolution without root cause corrective actions.”

Bickeböller told the committee’s investigators that similar problems still exist, sharing a lengthy complaint he filed with the FAA in October.

“Boeing’s culture of dealing with issues Boeing perceives [to be] ‘only a violation of regulations’ but ‘probably not a direct product safety issue’ is a dangerous culture not conducive to the proper safety of aerospace products,” he wrote in the complaint.

Many of the concerns are tied to the system the FAA uses for handing some oversight work to employees of major manufacturers. The revised law directed the agency to reassert itself in the management of that system, choosing the company employees that carry out work on its behalf.

But the agency has raised questions about the system, launching a review in August after Boeing safety staff members said they faced conflicts of interest.

The report indicates similar issues in at least one other company.

Richard Kucera, a former GE Aviation engineer, told the committee that after he identified problems with an engine being developed for the new Boeing 777X, he was threatened with termination. Kucera said he was later given work on the engine under a “coaching plan” that would have the effect of “diminishing” his ability to act on the government’s behalf.

General Electric did not immediately respond to a request for comment.