Boeing whistleblower says plane parts had serious defects

Airplane bodies from Boeing’s largest supplier regularly left the factory with serious defects, according to a former quality inspector at the company.

Santiago Paredes, who worked for Spirit AeroSystems in Kansas, told the BBC that he often found as many as 200 defects in parts being prepared for shipment to Boeing.

He was nicknamed the “showstopper” because he delayed production while trying to address his concerns, he claimed.

Spirit said it “strongly disagree(d)” with the allegations.

“We are vigorously defending ourselves against his claims,” said a spokesperson for Spirit, still Boeing’s largest supplier.

Mr Paredes made the allegations against Spirit in an exclusive interview with the BBC and US network CBS, describing what he said he experienced while working at the company between 2010 and 2022.

He was used to finding “somewhere between 50 and 100, 200” defects on the fuselage — the main body of the plane — that would be shipped to Boeing, he said.

“I found a lot of missing fasteners, a lot of bent parts, and sometimes even missing parts.”

Boeing declined to comment.

The incident prompted the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration, to launch an audit of production practices at both companies. Several cases were found where the companies did not comply with production control practices.

Mr Paredes told the BBC that some of the flaws he found at Spirit were minor, but others were more serious.

He also claimed he was pressured to be less strict.

“They were always concerned about why I found it, why I looked at it,” he said.

“They just wanted to get the product shipped. They weren’t focused on the consequences of shipping bad hulls. They were just focused on meeting the quota, meeting the schedule, meeting the budget… If the numbers looked good, the condition of the hull didn’t really matter,” he claimed.

Many of Mr. Paredes’ alleged experiences at Spirit are part of his testimony in legal actions brought against the company by disgruntled shareholders.

However, in legal documents he is simply referred to as “Former Employee 1”. This is the first time Mr. Paredes, a former Air Force technician, has spoken publicly.

Before leaving the company, Mr. Paredes led a team of inspectors at the end of the 737 Max production line.

A second former quality auditor, Josh Dean, whose claims were also alleged to be part of the lawsuit, died last week after contracting a serious bacterial infection.

The lawsuit accuses the company of deliberately attempting to cover up serious and widespread quality deficiencies and exposing shareholders to financial losses when these deficiencies are uncovered. Spirit said it “strongly disagrees” with the claims in the legal action.

Spirit was once part of Boeing and remains the aircraft manufacturer’s main supplier. It builds the fuselage of each 737 Max at its factory in Wichita, Kansas, before shipping it to Boeing’s own factory in Renton, near Seattle, Washington. It also makes major parts of the 787 Dreamliner.

It is now in a difficult position. It is a cash drain, losing $617m (£494m) in the first three months of the year.

Boeing has agreed to provide financial support and is in talks to buy back its former subsidiary.

Sources within the aerospace giant emphasize that efforts are underway to address quality issues at Spirit, which have succeeded in reducing the number of defects in parts leaving the Wichita factory by about 80%.

Mr Paredes said both companies were aware of the extent of the defect problem and this was discussed during weekly meetings between quality inspectors from both companies.

Matters came to a head for Mr Paredes personally, he claimed, when he was instructed by his manager to change the way defects were reported to reduce the overall number.

After he protested, he said, he was demoted and moved to another part of the factory.

“I felt like I was being threatened, and I felt like I was being retaliated against for raising my concerns,” he said.

Mr. Paredes then filed an “ethics complaint” with the company’s human resources department and wrote a letter to Spirit’s then-CEO Tom Gentile.

In that email he said, “I have lost confidence in the quality organization here at Spirit and this is my final cry for help.”

Mr Paredes was subsequently reinstated in his leadership role and given a payout after his complaint was partially upheld. Shortly afterwards he left the company.

He now claims he would be reluctant to fly a 737 Max because it still had defects that originated at the Wichita factory.

“I had never met many people who were afraid of flying until I worked at Spirit,” he said.

And when I was at Spirit, I met a lot of people who were afraid to fly – because they saw how they built the fuselages.”