“Boeing is confident in the safety and durability of the 787 and 777,” the company said at a news conference with two expert engineers, who summarized evidence aimed at refuting accusations that some 1,400 Boeing planes have significant safety problems.
Wednesday’s Senate hearing will include testimony from Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour, who last week publicly accused the company of having poor safety practices and retaliating against him for speaking out on the issue.
The hearing is part of the intense scrutiny that regulators and politicians are exerting on Boeing after the emergency landing of an Alaska Airlines flight on January 5, due to a fuselage panel of the device, a 737 MAX, exploding in mid-air.
Salehpour says, among other accusations, that the 787 Dreamliner contains gaps between parts far above company standards, which would create unsafe conditions “with potentially catastrophic accidents” by “causing premature fatigue failure without warning.”
Steve Chisholm, Boeing’s head of Mechanical and Structural Engineering, told reporters that “zero fatigue was found” in testing.
“We were not surprised that there were no fatigue findings,” he said, noting that the 787’s composite materials were chosen because they do not fatigue or corrode like traditional metals.
While Boeing maintains that about 99% of part gaps meet the 0.005-inch standard, a small percentage exceed it.
“We’re talking about 150 pounds on a structure that must support a load of thousands of pounds. This is not a large load,” Chisholm said. “It is acceptable”.
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Source: With information from AFP.
