Crucial Boeing 737 Supplier Accused Of Ignoring Defects By Former Employees

Photo: National Transportation Safety Board (Getty Images)

Former employees of Spirit AeroSystems have accused the Boeing 737 Max 9 supplier of ignoring manufacturer defects, the Lever reports. The door plug failure on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 has increased the already high scrutiny of the troubled airliner. Before the panel was found in a Portland school teacher’s yard after falling from 16,000 feet, attention shifted to how the airliner was assembled. Alaska, as well as United Airlines, found loose bolts on other 737 Max 9 aircraft.

I Need A New Car For My Job | WCSYB?

Spirit AeroSystems shareholders filed a class-action lawsuit against the company last May. Spirit produces the 737 Max 9’s fuselage, including the door plugs. The suit claims that Spirit withheld information about quality control and production issues. These purported problems impacted Boeing’s 737 Max deliveries last August when the planemaker spotted quality issues with the Spirit-provided aft pressure bulkhead. According to Reuters, Spirit laid the blame on its own suppliers.

Boeing wasn’t the first party to raise their concerns with Spirit. Level outlined how one of the supplier’s employees got demoted for sending a complaint to federal regulators:

The worker, who is unnamed in the federal court case, submitted an ethics complaint to the company detailing what had occurred, writing in it that the inspection team had “been put on [sic] a very unethical place,” and emphasizing the “excessive amount of defects” workers were encountering.

“We are being asked to purposely record inaccurate information,” the inspection worker wrote in the ethics complaint.

He then sent an email to Spirit’s then-CEO, Tom Gentile, attaching the ethics complaint and detailing his concerns, saying it was his “last resort.”

When the employee had first expressed concerns to his supervisor about the mandate, the supervisor responded “that if he refused to do as he was told, [the supervisor] would fire him on the spot,” the court documents allege.

The employee was returned to his previous position with backpay once his complaint was sustained. This was just the tip of the iceberg for complaints from people who worked at Spirit. Many at the supplier believed Spirit was far more focused on producing as many components as possible than the quality of what they were shipping. Be sure to read the entire piece about the class-action suit against Spirit AeroSystems.