Whistleblower Of Boeing Supplier Says He Saw Defects Daily As Planes Left Factory
A former quality inspector for one of Boeing’s main suppliers, Spirit AeroSystems, is speaking out about defects and safety issues that he claims to have seen daily with 737 Max planes as they left the factory.
“Working at Spirit, I almost grew a fear of flying,” Santiago Paredes said in an interview published Wednesday with CBS News. “Knowing what I know about the 737, it makes me very uncomfortable when I fly on one of them.”
Paredes, also speaking with the BBC, said he worked for Spirit AeroSystems in Kansas between 2010 and 2022 and found “anywhere from 50 to 100, 200” defects with the planes’ fuselages, which are the plane’s main body, while serving as a quality inspector. He’s one of several former employees who have alleged safety issues with both Spirit and Boeing.
“I was finding a lot of missing fasteners, a lot of bent parts, sometimes even missing parts,” he said. “I said it was just a matter of time before something bad happened.”
He said some of the issues he found were near door panels similar to the one that blew off on a Boeing 737 Max in January. The National Transportation Safety Board later determined that the door panel likely was missing bolts that had been removed and not put back on during repairs at Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington.
A spokesperson for Spirit AeroSystems, which is not related to Spirit Airlines, called the allegations presented by Paredes unfounded but said they cannot comment on them specifically due to ongoing litigation.
“We take all employee concerns about quality, safety, work practices, and products very seriously. Our employees’ well-being and the quality of our work are both top priorities for us,” Joe Buccino said in an emailed statement to HuffPost. “We encourage all Spirit employees with concerns to come forward, safe in knowing they will be protected.”
Paredes’ interview with both outlets was the first he has given publicly on his experience, though he also testified about it as part of a lawsuit filed by shareholders against Spirit in December, according to both outlets.
In that suit, while only referred to as “Former Employee 1,” he accused the company of prioritizing production speed over quality and greenlighting known defects. If quality personnel refused to approve the defective work, production managers would complain to the employee’s manager, who would allegedly find another quality personnel to approve it.
“They weren’t focused on the consequences of shipping bad fuselages. They were just focused on meeting the quotas, meeting the schedule, meeting the budget,” Paredes said in his BBC interview. “If the numbers looked good, the state of the fuselages didn’t really matter.”
A second former quality auditor with Spirit AeroSystems similarly testified about safety issues and concerns as part of that lawsuit. That man, Joshua Dean, claimed that he was wrongfully fired last year after flagging a significant defect with some 737 Max fuselages.
Dean died last week after developing a sudden illness. His death followed the March death of former Boeing quality control engineer-turned-whistleblower John Barnett, who authorities said died by suicide. Barnett was working on providing a deposition as part of a lawsuit against Boeing when he was found dead in his car, his attorneys said.
