(Observer Network News) According to the disclosure on March 11th, local time in The New York Times, USA, the FAA found that Boeing "has many problems in quality control" after six weeks of audit. Among all 89 audits, Boeing passed 56, 33 failed, accounting for more than 37%, and 97 possible irregularities were found.
The quality problem is serious, and the qualified rate of fuselage audit is less than 50%
According to the inspection report of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cited by The New York Times, there are dozens of problems in the manufacturing process of Boeing 737Max aircraft manufacturers and their main suppliers.
After the Mense crash of Alaska Airlines Boeing 737MAX in January, the FAA began to investigate this type of aircraft. The survey results show that 56 of 89 audit subjects passed the audit, 33 failed the audit, and the failure rate exceeded 37%. During the audit, there were 97 suspected violations.
In the investigation of 737Max fuselage contractor Spirit AeroSystems, the report showed that seven audits were unqualified, which was unreasonable by more than 50%. It is mentioned in the report that the personnel of the air safety agency have witnessed the mechanic of Spirit company using the hotel room card to check the plane’s Mense. In addition, the FAA personnel also saw the mechanic of Spirit company smearing soap liquid on the door plug as a "lubricant" during fitting, and then cleaning Mense with a wet cheese cloth.
Boeing’s factory in Leighton, Washington (pictured from Reuters)
In an audit of Mense components by Spirit Company, the investigators found five problems, one of which was that "no evidence was provided to prove that the minor design changes of the aircraft had been approved by the FAA". Another audit that Spirit failed involved the installation of Boeing 737Max in Mense. In this audit, investigators expressed their concern about the Spirit technicians who performed this work because the company "failed to clearly understand the knowledge needed to implement this process".
Other audits that Spirit failed include those involving cargo doors and the installation of cockpit windows. In this regard, Spirit spokesman Joe Buccino said that the company is "reviewing all identified non-compliance behaviors to correct them".
In the audit of Boeing, the auditors found that many problems of Boeing were not following the "approved manufacturing processes, procedures or instructions", and other problems involved the quality control of Boeing aircraft.
The FAA also rated Boeing employees’ understanding of the quality control process. In the survey, they interviewed six company engineers and graded their answers, with an overall average score of only 58%.
According to the report, the FAA has deployed as many as 20 investigators in Boeing and about 6 investigators in Spirit.
It is worth noting that Spirit AeroSystems was spun off from Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company in 2005. Boeing said this month that it is in talks to acquire Spirit.
In March, there were four vicious accidents, and Boeing whistleblowers committed suicide.
Recently, Boeing’s security issues have once again attracted attention from all walks of life.
Following the fall of Boeing 737Max 9 Mense in January, several people on board were injured, the engine of Boeing 747-8 cargo plane caught fire over Miami, and the tire of Boeing 757 fell off. Since March, Boeing has had four consecutive vicious accidents. At the beginning of the month, there were three accidents including engine fire, tire falling off and skidding off the runway.
On the 11th local time, a Boeing 787-9 caused a "strong vibration" due to "technical problems" during the flight. At least 50 people were injured in the vibration, and then the plane landed at Auckland airport.
The New Zealand Traffic Accident Investigation Committee said on Tuesday that it was detaining the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder (black box) of the Boeing 787-9 plane that injured 50 people on the 11th. The black box will provide more information about the flight trajectory and communication between pilots.
On March 9, local time, the government of South Carolina confirmed that John Barnett, a 62-year-old former employee of Boeing, who publicly questioned the problems in Boeing’s production line, was found dead in the car.
In 2010, he began to work as a quality manager at the Boeing factory in North Charleston, and retired in 2017. In 2019, barnett reported that the overworked employees of his Boeing factory in South Carolina deliberately installed substandard parts on the aircraft on the production line. A few days before his death, the old employee who had worked for Boeing for 32 years was still busy with his lawsuit against Boeing. He was found dead because he failed to provide testimony on the 9th.
Lawyer barnett used "alleged" to describe his client’s statement of "shooting himself".
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