Boeing: Faulty Parts Scare

Taken from: http://www.Skynews.com

Families are flying off on their summer holidays on potentially dangerous aircraft, Sky News has learned.

In an exclusive report our US correspondent Andrew Wilson examines claims by two former auditors of Boeing that the aircraft manufacturer built some of its aircraft in the knowledge that certain parts were defective.

Wilson’s six-month investigation has unearthed allegations that parts were wrongly made, had holes drilled in the wrong positions or did not fit properly on the aircraft.

The parts were used in assembling the Boeing 737NG between 1994 and 2002.

EasyJet is among the British airlines who have bought the 737, without knowing of the claims.

Boeing said the allegations were “without merit” and stressed a multi-tiered control process in place for decades has been effective in maintaining quality and safety.

Former auditors Taylor Smith and Jeannine Prewitt told Sky that Boeing accepted defective parts for 737s and other jets from Ducommun, a Californian supplier, and installed them even though they knew them to be faulty and potentially dangerous.

The components – which are crucial to the safety of an aircraft’s fuselages – are alleged to have had incorrectly drilled holes and other physical defects that make them more likely to fail.

Ms Prewitt said safety was compromised by “so many manufacturing and quality discrepancies”, building the planes should have stopped immediately but did not.

Ducommun did not return any calls to Sky