More woe for Boeing: New whistleblower claims company's 777 ad 787 Dreamliner jets are flawed and could become catastrophic saying he 'literally saw people jumping on pieces of the airplane to get them to align'

Another whistleblower has come forward to accuse airline making behemoth Boeing of taking shortcuts when building the 777 and 787 Dreamliner jets and of retaliating against him when he raised concerns with management. 

Sam Salehpour's allegations come just a month after the mysterious suicide of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, a long time employee who made similar claims, including those of retaliation in a still unresolved lawsuit. 

Salehpour will now take part in a government hearing on Boeing's safety record amid numerous public near-disasters this year. The company's outgoing CEO David Calhoun has also been summoned to appear before the panel on April 17. It has not been confirmed if he will in fact appear.  

Salehpour is expected to detail safety concerns involving the manufacture and assembly of the 787 Dreamliner. The subcommittee said in a letter that those problems could create 'potentially catastrophic safety risks.'

On Tuesday, Salehpour said during a conference call involving his lawyers that he 'literally saw people jumping on the pieces of the airplane to get them to align,' reports CNN. These observations were made in 2021.  

In a 1,500 word statement, Boeing said it was 'fully confident' in the 787 and called concerns about structural integrity 'inaccurate.' Boeing added that the issues raised in the Times story 'do not present any safety concerns' and said the 787 'will maintain its service life over several decades.'

'Retaliation is strictly prohibited at Boeing,' the company added in the statement, noting that it encourages employees to 'speak up when issues arise.'

Boeing's outgoing CEO David Calhoun is being called for testify before a government panel as part of its investigations into Boeing 

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In early January, an unused emergency exit door blew off a brand-new Boeing 737 Max shortly after take-off from Portland International, sparking a still-ongoing DOJ investigation

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'Rather than heeding his warnings, Boeing prioritized getting the planes to market as quickly as possible, despite the known, well-substantiated issues he raised,' attorneys Debra Katz and Lisa Banks said in a statement on Tuesday. 

'I am doing this not because I want Boeing to fail, but because I want it to succeed and prevent crashes from happening. The truth is Boeing can’t keep going the way it is. It needs to do a little bit better, I think,' Salehpour said. 

The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) said Salehpour is a member who works at Boeing's plant in Everett, Washington. The engineering union said it could not comment on Salehpour's specific concerns. 

A Boeing spokesperson said that the company is cooperating with the subcommittee's inquiry and has 'offered to provide documents, testimony and technical briefings.'

The Federal Aviation Administration has also been investigating Salehpour's allegations since February, according to the subcommittee. The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Salehpour, whose concerns were featured in a New York Times article Tuesday, is also expected to describe retaliation he faced after bringing his concerns forward.

According to that account, Salehpour worked on the 787 but grew alarmed over changes to the assembly of the fuselage, the main body of the aircraft. 

That process entails fitting together and fastening giant sections of the fuselage, each one produced by a different company, according to Salehpour's account.

Salehpour told the Times he believed Boeing was taking shortcuts that led to excessive force in the assembly process, creating deformations in the composite material used in the aircraft's outer skin. 

Original whistleblower John Barnett had alleged that second-rate parts were literally removed from scrap bins, before being fitted to planes that were being built to prevent delays

An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 Max flies over Boeing's manufacturing facility in Everett where Salehpour worked 

Wreckage of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-MAX plane is seen on March 11, 2019

A Boeing 737 MAX-8 that plunged into the sea 13 minutes after taking off from Tangerang, Indonesia, on October 29, 2018. The crash killed all 189 people on board

Such composites often consist of plastic layers reinforced by a mesh of carbon or glass fibers, increasing tensile strength and making them a useful substitute for heavier metals.

But composites can lose those benefits if they are twisted or otherwise deformed. Salehpour alleged that such problems could create increased material fatigue, possibly leading to premature failure of the composite, according to the Times account. 

Over thousands of flights, those pieces of fuselage could risk breaking apart mid-flight.

According to Salehpour's account, Boeing not only failed to take his concerns seriously, it silenced him and transferred him to work on a different jetliner, a move he took as retaliation.

Boeing's safety record has been under a microscope since a door panel on a 737 Max 9 jet blew out over Oregon in early January. 

The panel plugged a space left for an extra emergency door on the jet, which was operated by Alaska Airlines. Pilots were able to land safely, and there were no injuries.

But accident investigators' subsequent discovery of missing bolts intended to secure the panel rocked Boeing, which once boasted an enviable safety culture. 

Alaska Airlines and United Airlines — the two U.S. carriers that fly the Max 9 — also reported finding loose bolts and other hardware in other panels, suggesting that quality issues with the door plugs were not limited to one plane.

Boeing was in such a 'cozy' relationship with the Federal Aviation Administration it was able to push back on any criticism, it has been alleged 

 Both the 787 and the 737 Max have been plagued by production defects that have sporadically held up deliveries and left airlines short of planes during busy travel seasons.

Calhoun, the CEO, announced in March that he will retire at the end of the year. That followed the departure of another high-ranking Boeing executive and the decision by Boeing's board chairman not to stand for reelection in May. 

'Voluntary reporting without fear of reprisal is a critical component in aviation safety,' the FAA said. 'We strongly encourage everyone in the aviation industry to share information. We thoroughly investigate all reports.'

An agency source said the FAA has met with the whistleblower. 

Senator Richard Blumenthal's office said his investigation subcommittee will hold a hearing on Boeing issues with Salehpour on April 17 titled 'Examining Boeing's Broken Safety Culture: Firsthand Accounts.'

Blumenthal added he wants Calhoun, who said last month that he will step down by year-end, to testify at a future hearing. The panel had initially sought to have Calhoun testify at next week's hearing according to a March 19 letter.

'We want to provide Boeing the opportunity to explain to the American people why, in light of recent apparent safety failures, the public should feel confident in Boeing's engineering and assembly processes,' Blumenthal and Senator Ron Johnson, the top Republican on the panel, wrote.

Boeing has offered to provide documents, testimony and technical briefings to the senate sub-committee, the company said in an emailed statement to Reuters on Tuesday. 

Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether Boeing violated a 2021 settlement that shielded the U.S. plane maker from prosecution following two fatal MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019. 

That January 2021 agreement, known as a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), gave the plane maker an avenue to avoid prosecution on a charge of conspiring to defraud the FAA.

In determining whether Boeing violated the settlement, prosecutors are expected to lean heavily on findings from the FAA's investigations, a person familiar with the matter previously told Reuters.

The FAA in August 2022 approved the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner for delivery since 2021 after the manufacturer made inspection and retrofit changes needed to meet certification standards. 

There are currently about 1,100 Dreamliners in service, Boeing said.