Boeing defends 787 Dreamliner safety after whistleblower alleged structural flaws

Boeing on Monday defended the quality and safety testing on its 787 Dreamliner and 777 aircraft, days after one of the company's engineers went public with allegations that the plane-maker took "shortcuts" to speed up production of the planes.

The whistleblower, Sam Salehpour, last week said that Boeing's 787 assembly put excessive stress on airplane joints that could reduce some of the planes' lifespans. Boeing denied the allegations, calling them "inaccurate" and said it stood by the planes' safety.

Salehpour is scheduled to appear along with another whistleblower who worked at Boeing, a former aviation official and an independent safety expert at a Senate hearing on Wednesday about aircraft safety called "Examining Boeing's Broken Safety Culture: Firsthand Accounts."

Salehpour's claims come as Boeing navigates intense scrutiny after a door plug blew out of a 737 Max plane in January. The narrow-body aircraft is Boeing's bestseller, and the blowout at 16,000 feet put passengers inches from tragedy. Since the accident the Federal Aviation Administration has blocked Boeing from increasing production of that plane.

In a roughly two-hour presentation with reporters on Monday, two Boeing engineering managers detailed the company's stress and safety tests for the 787, which include testing the plane for 165,000 cycles, each meant to provide an equivalent of a flight, with varying conditions. In addition, the fuselage skin was struck by a 300-pound pendulum, the engineers said.

Steve Chisholm, chief engineer for Boeing's mechanical and structural engineering, said Boeing created damage to fuselage panels in intense tests that were repeated more times than what aircraft would experience in service, "and the damage didn't grow."

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