Did FAA properly investigate Boeing complaint?

The federal government may not have adequately investigated claims that Boeing Wichita knowingly installed defective parts on airplanes, according to a Washington Post article Monday. The claims, raised by three whistleblowers in a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Wichita, were investigated and dismissed by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Pentagon and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The FAA and Boeing also contend that the parts in question don’t pose a safety risk, and District Judge Wesley Brown dismissed part of the lawsuit in February because the plaintiffs were not specific enough in their allegations that Boeing defrauded the U.S. government.
But according to the Post’s review: “FAA inspectors examined only a small number of parts in the plants and did not visit any airplanes to inspect the roughly 200 types of parts questioned by the whistleblowers. The Pentagon and Transportation Department, in turn, relied on the FAA’s work, documents show.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

8 Comments

  1. J M Walker
    Posted April 19, 2006 at 12:29 am | Permalink

    . . . And who shot JFK?

  2. Joe Williams
    Posted April 19, 2006 at 8:01 am | Permalink

    There are so many pieces into an aircraft that not everything will fit together or the part be exactly to spec. That happens. I’ve seen it myself and installed parts myself.

    They are probably saying some certain parts were not the right spec, so it’s defective. But you can make a defective part work with approval by engineering. It happens all the time. From assymbly mistakes done by the employee to parts, engineering takes care of that.

    200 parts on a Boeing fuselage that was out of spec is not bad. When I worked at Cessna, they had a lot more than that. In the thousands.

    There court case will be thrown out as soon as documentation is shown. They have no case. Either it is sour grapes or just another opportunist trial lawyer who has no idea how the aircraft manufacturing process works.

  3. Ben Huie
    Posted April 19, 2006 at 8:28 am | Permalink

    Boeing sure better hope so Joe. I seem to remember similar things being said about their corruption with the Air Force – before Druyen and Sears went to jail.

  4. Todd
    Posted April 19, 2006 at 12:43 pm | Permalink

    I doubt a buyer would know what they were looking at in any phase of the manufacturing process.

  5. gster
    Posted April 19, 2006 at 12:49 pm | Permalink

    Todd- I work for a manufacturer that supplies Geneneral Aviation , among other industries. You are 100% correct about the buyers knowledge regarding the manufacturing processes.

  6. Jim Koch
    Posted April 24, 2006 at 3:31 pm | Permalink

    Well…the person that posted the Druyen and Sears comment proves that there is some intelligent life still in my home state! The rest of you need to pull your heads out. There is a major difference between General Aviation, Commercial Aviation, and Military Aviation. If any of you researched Boeing on the internet…you would find that they have a history (over the last 10-15 years) of pulling illegal business practices, and being fined millions and millions of dollars for it. None of us wants to believe that a venerable corporation like Boeing would behave this way, but I am sure that a lot of Enron, Worldcom, and Tyco employees were very surprised also. I guess based on comments above…I will not be buying any Cessna Planes in the future.

  7. Ben Huie
    Posted April 24, 2006 at 3:41 pm | Permalink

    Hi Jim. For the record, I am not a native, I am a transplant.

    Boeing’s record to which you refer includes the period that Todd Tiahrt was in that office at Boeing.

  8. Jim Koch
    Posted April 24, 2006 at 4:45 pm | Permalink

    Thanks Ben! Like you…I have additional knowledge of this case, and of the people involved. It amazes me that no one seems to ask themselves, “Why would an individual, or small group of individuals risk so much to bring a safety issue out into the public forum. Risk their jobs. Risk public harassment.” I suppose when people read the article they must have missed the fact that this is not a civil suit. It is a federal suit. And yes…the plantiffs stand to receive a percentage of what the Government may get back as a fine…it can never compensate for the suffering these people have gone through to do the right thing.