The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is considering enhanced inspections of hundreds of Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets after quality-control lapses were discovered in the production process.
The Latest Boeing 787 Quality Control Problems
Boeing alerted the FAA in late August that it had discovered sections of the 787’s rear fuselage produced in its South Carolina facility failed to meet internal design and manufacturing standards.
A forthcoming safety directive from the FAA could cover up to 900 of the 1,000 Dreamliners delivered over the last nine years. Boeing and the FAA are continuing a joint review and Boeing maintains that the self-confessed defect does not pose an “immediate safety threat” by itself.
This news is linked but distinct from Boeing’s order to ground eight 787s in late August due to immediate safety concerns. That problem coupled with the wider design flaw resulted in those aircraft not meeting the “requirements for safe flight and landing.” While Boeing never identified which airlines were impacted by that that order, the following airlines have volunteered that at least one of their Dreamliners was affected:
- Air Canada
- Air Europa
- All Nipon Airways
- Etihad
- Norwegian Air
- Singapore Airlines
- United Airlines
A Boeing spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal:
“We are taking the appropriate steps to resolve these issues and prevent them from happening again.”
Boeing added that it is closely inspecting new aircraft prior to delivery to ensure these two design defects do not exist.
Meanwhile, the FAA only confirmed it “is investigating manufacturing flaws affecting certain Boeing 787 jetliners.” It also added that “it is too early to speculate about the nature or extent of any proposed airworthiness directives that might arise.”
CONCLUSION
While it is laudable that Boeing identified these problems on its own and self-reported them, the latest problem with the 787 program further undermines confidence in the ability of Boeing to overcome the skepticism that continue to loom over its 737 MAX program.
image: Jetstar Airways
Of course Norwegian was affected. Any issue that could possibly affect a Boeing product has grounded Norwegian. I’m not sure if their business model works, but it would be provable if their planes were actually able to fly.
So, is it poor quality control in South Carolina? This isn’t the first time that the Charleston facility has had QC issues: tools left in the wings, poor workmanship on the 787 and on Air Force aircraft… Boeing wanted to go cheap in the South and avoid all of their union agreements in Washington State; well it looks like those chickens have come home to roost.
I was an aerospace engineer at Georgia Tech – believe it’s still a top 3 program in the country. At least at the time, Boeing had a laughably flawed recruitment process – the recruiter confessed to me that their resume screens were based on key words posted in the entry-level job descriptions. For example, having “Microsoft Word” on your resume was more likely to get you looked at than “NASA” (I had two high school internships there).
Needless to say, the top students never interned or worked there full time. Have to wonder if that factors into all the problems they’ve faced while engineering machines far less complex than those at say, SpaceX.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/boeing-uncovers-fourth-production-flaw-082404437.html