A senior executive at Boeing, he noted repeated anomalies in the factory from which the two 737 Max planes crashed in 2018 and 2019. Ed Pierson then sounded the alarm, without being heard. He testifies in “Special Envoy”.
Since two crashes a few months apart which left 346 dead, Boeing is no longer synonymous with reliability. Both involved the 737 Max, designed in record time to face competition from Airbus. A former manager who witnessed its production testifies in “Special Envoy”.
Ed Pierson worked for ten years at Boeing, where he was a senior executive. Now retired, he investigates security issues at his former employer. “A kind of obsession” for the one who has turned into a whistleblower, who occupies it “day and night for five years.”
In the suburbs of Seattle, Ed Pierson took the “Special Envoy” team to the workshops where the two planes that crashed came out of. In this factory, he claims to have noticed serious problems as early as 2017: multiplication of the number of subcontractors to reduce costs, accelerated production rates (up to 52 planes per month)…
“The workers were working overtime at a crazy rate. More than 50 hours a week, non-stop, on Saturdays and Sundays too. And we saw the rate of anomalies skyrocket.”
Ed Pierson, former executive at Boeingto “Special Envoy”
So much so that in June 2018, he decided to alert the general director of the factory. He reports breakdowns and violations of safety procedures to him, and even concludes: “We have to close this factory.” Impossible, replied the director. “At that moment, continues Ed Pierson, What I didn’t know was that one of the two planes that crashed afterwards had barely left the factory.”
A few weeks later, he left the company with a departure plan. “I’ve had a lot of insomnia since then, he confides, wondering what he would have “could have done more”.
According to the official investigation, the two accidents were due to the MCAS software, responsible for stabilizing the plane, but likely to cause it to dive towards the ground. Boeing assures that this software has been revised. Ed Pierson, for his part, says that the problems in the factories are much more serious, and far from being resolved.
The events of recent months seem to prove him right. In January 2024, a brand new Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max lost a door during takeoff. Four bolts were missing. Inspections revealed similar problems on other planes. In the process, the United States Congress launched a commission of inquiry. Ed Pierson came to testify under oath, and a former engineer gave chilling testimony on two other long-haul models, the 777 and the 787.
“I’ve seen workers literally jump on parts to make them line up. I call it the ‘Tarzan effect’. They produce defective planes.”
Sam Salehpour, former engineer at Boeingbefore the United States Congress, in April 2024
It is no longer just the 737 Max, the latest model, which is in question, but almost the entire Boeing range. That is potentially 1,400 aircraft in service.
Excerpt from “Boeing in Turmoil”, a broadcast report in “Special Envoy” on October 17, 2024.
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