What's the story
A year before the tragic crash of Air India Flight AI171 in Ahmedabad, a whistleblower had alerted authorities about structural flaws in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Sam Salehpour, a Boeing engineer, had raised concerns over unsafe assembly practices and shortcuts taken during the manufacturing of the aircraft's fuselage, India Today reported.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) subsequently launched an investigation into these allegations.
Allegations detailed
Salehpour's allegations included improper fastening of fuselage sections, which he claimed could lead to mid-flight disintegration after thousands of trips.
He also alleged that Boeing workers were seen physically jumping on fuselage sections to force misaligned parts into place during assembly.
"I literally saw people jumping on the pieces of the airplane to get them to align... By jumping up and down, you're deforming parts so that the holes align temporarily... and that's not how you build an airplane," Salehpour told CNN.
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Broader implications
Salehpour's concerns weren't limited to the 787 Dreamliner; he also raised red flags about Boeing's 777 jets.
He warned that gaps in fuselage joints and excessive force used to align parts could lead to premature fatigue in the aircraft's composite materials.
His allegations prompted an ongoing FAA investigation into the production...
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