Answer: at least seven. Seven whistleblowers who are either current or former employees of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Boeing, and GE came forward to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (“Committee”) to report safety issues related to “aircraft safety and certification environment at the FAA and within the industry.” In response to these whistleblowers sharing their experiences as aviation industry engineers and the safety issues they observed, the Committee drafted the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act, which was enacted in December 2020.
Whistleblowers initially reported concerns to the Committee following two Boeing 737 MAX-8 catastrophes in 2018 and 2019, incidents which the Committee investigated extensively. The Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act extended Federal whistleblower protections to employees, contractors, and suppliers of aircraft manufacturers. Since the passage of the Act, whistleblowers continued to engage with the Committee, alerting the Committee to continuing issues within the aviation industry.
According to the December 2021 “Aviation Safety Whistleblower Report” from the Democratic staff of the Committee, the major issues whistleblowers highlighted include:
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