The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crash on June 12 has once again put Boeing’s safety culture under intense scrutiny, reviving long-standing concerns about production pressure, compromised quality checks and inadequate testing of aircraft components.
From the two Boeing 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 to the catastrophic 787 crash in Ahmedabad, a series of aviation disasters has claimed hundreds of lives, raising fundamental questions about whether commercial priorities have repeatedly overridden safety considerations.
Explaining what he describes as Boeing’s “schedule-first” culture, former Boeing senior manager-turned-whistleblower and current Executive Director of the Foundation for Aviation Safety Ed Pierson told Firstpost that production timelines consistently took precedence over safety on the factory floor.
While the company publicly maintains that safety and quality come first, Pierson said the reality inside Boeing’s manufacturing facilities often tells a different story.
“There was incredible pressure to get the work done. The schedule was king, as they always say at Boeing. The company says that safety and quality come first, but when it gets down to brass tacks, unfortunately, it’s not the same on the factory floor,” he said.
Pierson added that priorities varied sharply across teams, with some refusing to cut corners while others, under different leadership, made decisions that compromised safety.
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