A former quality inspector at Boeing\u2019s largest parts supplier said Wednesday that he was pressured to hide defects found in airline parts, adding to scrutiny over the company\u2019s quality control for its 737 aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Santiago Paredes worked for over a decade as an inspector at Spirit Aerosystems, Boeing\u2019s largest parts manufacturer. He told CBS News<\/u><\/a> and the BBC<\/u><\/a> that he wasn\u2019t surprised when missing door bolts led to an entire 737 Max door plug blowing out of an Alaska Airlines flight midair in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhy\u2019d that happen? Because Spirit let go of a defect that they overlooked because of the pressure that they put on the inspectors,\u201d Paredes said. \u201cIf the culture was good, those issues would be addressed, but the culture is not good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said he would see hundreds of defects in parts on a regular basis, even earning the nickname \u201cshowstopper\u201d from higher-ups for how frequently he slowed production due to his inspections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey always made a fuss about why I was finding it, why I was looking at it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey just wanted the product shipped out. They weren\u2019t focused on the consequences of shipping bad fuselages,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey were just focused on meeting the quotas, meeting the schedule, meeting the budget\u2026 If the numbers looked good, the state of the fuselages didn\u2019t really matter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following the Alaska Airlines incident, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all similar 787 Max aircraft and did a complete investigation of the company\u2019s parts quality and control infrastructure. Federal investigators said the company\u2019s safety culture was \u201cinadequate and confusing.\u201d<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n After Paredes complained that Spirit management changed the defect protocol to encourage less reports, he said he was demoted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI felt I was being threatened, and I felt I was being retaliated against for raising concerns,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was reinstated to a leadership role after filing a complaint but left the company shortly after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paredes said he\u2019s still reticent about flying due to what he experienced at the Boeing subsidiary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019d never met a lot of people who were scared of flying until I worked at Spirit,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then, being at Spirit, I met a lot of people who were afraid of flying \u2014 because they saw how they were building the fuselages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spirit denied Paredes\u2019 allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are vigorously defending against his claims,\u201d a Spirit spokesperson told CBS News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last month, a separate Boeing inspector-turned-whistleblower said the company \u201cabsolutely\u201d has a culture of retaliation<\/u><\/a> against inspectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn a rush to address the bottlenecks in production, Boeing hit problems, putting pieces together with excessive force to make them appear that the gaps don\u2019t exist even though they exist,\u201d Sam Salehpour said in a Senate hearing. \u201cThe gap didn\u2019t actually go away, and this may result in premature fatigue failure. Effectively, they are putting out defective airplanes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n