Two more Boeing whistleblowers go public over plane safety: ‘Like a ticking timebomb’

https://nypost.com/2024/06/05/us-news/two-more-boeing-whistleblowers-go-public-over-plane-safety

They say they just want to make sure the planes don’t crash.

Two former employees of Boeing and its key contractor have told The Post that --- despite the deaths of two whistleblowers within two months this year — they are more determined than ever to tell the truth about what they allege are dangerous practices at the once-great but now-scandal-scarred manufacturer.

Roy Irvin, a veteran of Boeing, and Santiago Paredes, who worked at Spirit AeroSystems (not to be confused with Spirit Airlines), are just two of at least 20 whistleblowers in the process of making their concerns about safety and quality issues at the aerospace giant public.

Their testimony comes after years of Boeing being dogged by whistleblower testimony and congressional investigations.

A scathing House Transportation and Infrastructure report in September 2020 found that two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 were the “horrific culmination” of “repeated and serious failures” by the company and regulators. Then in January, a fuselage plug blew off a new Alaskan Airlines Boeing 737 MAX-9 at 10,000 feet.

A whistleblower told the Seattle Times that the fault lay with Boeing because after the fuselage was delivered by its manufacturer, Spirit, a panel had been removed at Boeing’s Renton, Washington, factory and reinstalled without four crucial bolts.

Now Irvin and Paredes are speaking out.From 2011 until 2017, Irvin was a quality investigator at Boeing in North Charleston, SC, trying to ensure that $250 million 787 Dreamliner planes were ready to be put to work before they left the factory. He began at the company in 2009.

Irvin said he “pushed back” almost every day at serious safety and quality issues he found on planes that had left the factory floor and were on the “flight line,” meaning they were supposed to have been checked and found to be good to go.

But they weren’t, Irvin alleges, and he was often forced to be “insubordinate” because of how many times he called out the problems he saw.

“Missing safety devices on hardware or untightened hardware means that you’re not going to be able to control the airplane if those fail,” Irvin told The Post. “The safety device is on there. If the fastener is not secured correctly, it’s going to fall off and you’re not gonna be able to control the airplane.”

Irvin worked with Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, 62, who was found dead on March 9 in a hotel parking lot in South Carolina, his silver pistol in his hand, after he failed to show up for the second part of his testimony for a bombshell lawsuit against the company. Police ruled that Barnett died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Then Joshua Dean, 45, a former quality auditor at Spirit AeroSystems, died in early May from a fast-growing infection.

The deaths, paradoxically, may have empowered others to come forward.

Brian Knowles, a Charleston, SC, attorney who represents whistleblowers including Irvin and Paredes and also represented Barnett and Dean, told The Post his law firm has fielded dozens of new calls from potential whistleblowers in recent weeks. “Most of the people we’re hearing from are current employees,” he said. “These are not disgruntled employees.

“In many cases they love the company. It’s not about bringing down the company --- it’s about getting it back on track.

“Boeing says they are open to hearing criticisms but in reality they are not being addressed internally and many are retaliated against for speaking out.”