In October 2018, a Boeing 737 MAX carrying more than 180 passengers and crew members crashed in Indonesia, killing everyone on board. Five months later another Boeing 737 MAX went down in Ethiopia with more than 150 people.
Former Boeing manager Ed Pierson rang alarm bells internally at the company before the planes crashed, highlighting major problems at the 737 factory with overworked staff operating under relentless pressure. After the back-to-back tragedies, he decided to go public as a whistleblower, and testified to U.S. Congress about the company’s failings as well as the failures of aviation authorities.
Pierson, whose story has since been featured in the documentary film Flight/Risk, will discuss his experiences as a whistleblower at this year’s Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival and Symposium, alongside filmmaker Karim Amer, lawyer Mary Inman and whistleblower advocate Amber Scorah. Ahead of the panel, ICIJ interviewed Pierson about his experiences blowing the whistle at Boeing, taking his story public, and advoacting for better aviation safety.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Wow, it’s a bit overwhelming. It’s an incredible company. It’s got so many important projects and programs. In terms of the scope and the depth of the projects, it was incredible. And the people that I worked with were really solid people. Overall, I’d say a vast, vast majority of...
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