New Whistleblower Files FAA and OSHA Complaints Against Boeing and Spirit | Hacker News Reader

New Whistleblower Files FAA and OSHA Complaints Against Boeing and Spirit

katzbanks.com

56 pointsGrumpyNl15 comments

Just in case anyone else is a dummy like me: Spirit _AeroSystems_, not Spirit Airlines. Airplane parts manufacturer, not airline.

Thank you for this distinction.

It's quite absurd to me that the manufacturing of planes by Boeing has less stringent QC done by themselves on their main components provided by vendors than many consumer electronics do for their suppliers.

How could Boeing not have their own QC personnel checking the work done by a supplier of bodywork? Of course I believe it's down to cost-cutting, while also shifting the liability unto their vendor in case something is out of spec. Vendors who signed a contract with probably many clauses specifying they are on the line instead of Boeing in case of missed specs on their parts.

Still, it's the main bodywork of their planes, how are they not "trusting but verifying" this all the way through?

What a fucking rotten corporate culture, the best it could happen to this company is to be nationalised, let the government purge the current directors and try to install competent people to recover. I don't think there's any other way for Boeing to change its corporate culture after so many decades of rotting without an internal revolution.

> It's quite absurd to me that the manufacturing of planes by Boeing has less stringent QC done by themselves on their main components provided by vendors than many consumer electronics do for their suppliers.

That's quite a claim. A single modern airliner is 300,000-500,000 parts (depending on the model) that have to be manually inspected by multiple people compared to a tiny IC that can be automatically tested by a machine or a PCB that can be electrical tested with automated probes. From TFA:

> Boeing requires fastener holes in this section of the plane to be drilled at .2475 inches, which provides a near-perfect “interference-fit” that best retains air pressure during flight. Instead of drilling at that size, Spirit workers were directed to drill holes using a .2495 drill bit, to clear excess paint from the holes and speed up a slow process.

Oh and by the way, each hole has to be checked to within _2 thousandths_ of an inch.... They're not even remotely comparable.

An ASML UEV lithography machine is on the order of a 100,000 parts so that'd be like Intel and TSMC taking apart and running a precision CMM over every part on their main machines thousands of times a year (during which Boeing ships and inspects about 500 new planes).

> That's quite a claim. A single modern airliner is 300,000-500,000 parts (depending on the model) that have to be manually inspected by multiple people compared to a tiny IC that can be automatically tested by a machine or a PCB that can be electrical tested with automated probes.

I was very specific on mentioning bodywork of the aircraft as a critical main component that they shouldn't left suppliers do their own QC, not all the 300-500k parts...

I hope he has bodyguards.

I am not really following this, but is it true that people actually got murdered/missing in this debacle?

Yes. Ish. Died, murdered is unproven.

https://time.com/6900123/boeing-whistleblower-john-barnett-f...

Hope they don't kill this one.

Important to note that this complaint is not actually against Boeing. The whistleblower is an employee of Spirit and alleges that Spirit was not following the correct maintenance procedures. He reported this to Boeing because it was against their manufacturing specifications and Boeing investigated Spirit. Spirit fired him in retaliation. Boeing is tangential to this and added to the headline by sleazy lawyers looking for publicity.

So these "sleazy" lawyers are doing their job in fighting for their client.

It is not ethical to implicate Boeing in the headline when there is no alleged illegal or unethical behavior by them.

> When he raised these issues — first with Spirit management and then with Boeing’s ethics program — he was fired

Eh, at cursory glance it looks possible that Boeing has wrong doing. Perhaps we'll see an email come out of discovery from Boeing telling Spirit to solve the problem (of somebody raising complaints).

He reported Spirit's improper maintenance to Boeing which is the correct thing to do. Boeing investigated, which is also the proper thing to do.

It is not ethical to make allegations that depend on speculation that in the future there may be evidence for them.

All he has to do is show Spirit retaliated and Boeing is immediately implicated. "Because Mr. Cuevas served as a contractor for Spirit and subcontractor for Boeing and was directly employed by Strom, the Companies are liable for his retaliatory discharge under AIR21."

The complaint is against Boeing (they're literally listed under the "v" section) so its completely reasonable for somebody to report these documents as a complain by a new whistleblower against boeing.

https://katzbanks.com/wp-content/uploads/240620-Ltr-to-Hughe...

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