The airline manufacturer’s troubles just keep on piling up.
Boeing, one of only two major airline manufacturers in the world, is facing some serious safety concerns. At least 50 passengers were injured on Monday when its 787-9 aircraft heading from Sydney, Australia, to Auckland, New Zealand “suddenly dropped” in mid-air after an unspecified technical error.
Brian Jokat, who was on the flight, described the harrowing moment he was jolted awake from his sleep during an interview with CNN. “People were screaming and crying. And yeah, it was mass chaos for a few short seconds,” he told the network. “Clearly there was a moment in my head that I just kind of resigned to the fact this could be it. This might be it.”
The incident comes at a particularly disastrous time for Boeing: The aerospace giant has faced criticism in recent years for numerous technical problems involving its planes. This in turn has prompted even some of its employees to sound the alarm, including former quality manager John Barnett — who was found dead on Saturday after an apparent suicide. At the time, he had been locked in a legal battle with the company, alleging that it had punished him for raising concerns about production issues. (Boeing has denied these claims and unsuccessfully sought to dismiss his claim.) Barnett lawyer, Brian Knowles, has expressed doubts over the circumstances of his death and now police have launched an investigation.
As Boeing faces more scrutiny, here’s a breakdown of what whistleblowers have been saying, and a roundup of its past problems.
What were the whistleblower’s allegations about Boeing?
Barnett, who worked for the plane manufacturer for 32 years, alleged that he saw questionable production practices firsthand. For instance, he filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration, claiming that metal shavings were routinely left inside jets near electrical systems, which he said could have had “catastrophic” consequences if the sharp pieces had pierced the wiring.
The agency later confirmed these findings and issued a directive in 2017, requiring that these sharp materials be removed. Barnett retired from Boeing that same year — stating his suspicions that if he didn’t leave, he’d be fired.
After leaving the company, Barnett went on to become an even more outspoken critic, sharing his concerns with news outlets and taking part in a Netflix documentary called Downfall: The Case Against Boeing. In 2019, he told the BBC that workers at one factory had deliberately fitted faulty parts onto planes to meet production deadlines.
He also claimed that oxygen masks on the 787 Dreamliner had about a 25% chance of failing during an emergency. Despite warning his managers, ultimately no action was taken, and though Boeing denied the allegations, a 2017 review by the FAA found that some oxygen bottles weren’t actually deploying as they should.
Barnett had spoken out about malfunctions on the company’s other airline models, including the Alaska 737 Max-9 and its emergency landing after its exit doors blew out mid-air in January. But he said at the time that the company’s troubles weren’t necessarily isolated to any one plane.
“This is not a 737 problem, this is a Boeing problem,” he said in an interview with TMZ. “What we’re seeing with the door plug blowout is what I’ve seen with the rest of the airplane, as far as jobs not being completed properly, inspection steps being removed, issues being ignored.”
Barnett wasn’t the only one to call the manufacturer out: Former Boeing senior manager Ed Pierson testified before Congress that the company knowingly distributed 737 Max planes with faulty hardware or other system malfunctions. Similar to Barnett, he also faced pushback when he tried to report these defects to management.
What did Boeing’s audit find?
Following the Jan. 5 accident involving the Alaska Airlines jet, the FAA conducted a six-week audit of Boeing and found “dozens of problems” that could lead to potential safety hazards for passengers, according to a detailed report by The New York Times.
Most of these issues stemmed from a failure to follow “approved manufacturing processes” and keep proper quality control documentation, according to the Times.
Ultimately, out of 89 product audits, Boeing passed 56 tests and failed 33 of them. “We are squarely focused on taking significant, demonstrated action with transparency at every turn,” Boeing told CNBC following the audit.
One of Boeing’s key suppliers, Spirit AeroSystems, also performed poorly, passing just 6 out of the 13 product tests. At one point during the inspection, the agency reportedly witnessed mechanics using a hotel key card to check a door seal, and applying liquid Dawn soap to a door seal “as lubricant in the fit-up process.”
The company has now been mandated to overhaul its quality-control procedures within 90 days, though it could take a lot longer than that to rebuild trust with passengers. There’s already at least one travel site that allows consumers to avoid booking flights on Boeing 737 Max planes altogether:
On top of the FAA’s audit, the National Transportation Safety Board is probing what caused the 737 Max jet door panel to blow off during the Alaska Airlines incident, and the Justice Department has also reportedly begun a criminal investigation into the company.
When did Boeing’s problems begin?
Boeing’s mechanical issues started making headlines in October 2018, when a 737 MAX 8 operated by Lion Air crashed minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board. A year later, the same airline model — which was being flown by Ethiopian Airlines — crashed shortly after takeoff, resulting in the deaths of 157 passengers. In response, aviation regulators temporarily grounded the MAX worldwide.
Two separate federal investigations were then opened in 2020; in 2021, the Department of Justice found that Boeing had conspired to cover up its failures during the FAA investigation. As a result, the company faced criminal charges and was forced to pay over $2.5 billion, which included $500 million to the relatives of the 737 MAX crash victims.
Though those charges will be dropped in three years if Boeing follows the DOJ’s conditions, the company’s legal troubles hardly stop there: The Alaska Airlines blowout in January has already led to dozens of lawsuits from people aboard the plane. Together, they’re seeking compensation for their alleged physical and emotional injuries, including PTSD, and hearing damage.
“Boeing’s current and former CEO and senior leadership have prioritized profits and share price over the safety of the flying public despite repeated design, manufacturing, production, testing, and systemic quality-control issues and defects with the Boeing 737 Max aircraft,” Mark Lindquist, the lawyer representing those 26 passengers, said in a public statement.
But critics say the company’s woes have been years in the making. “Leadership is more concerned with getting the planes out the door than quality,” Pierson told CNN.
