https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-whistleblower-777-787-plane-safety-production-2024-4

Another Boeing whistleblower has come forward with concerns over one of the planemaker's family of passenger jetliners, pointing to safety concerns in at least 1,400 widebody airplanes.

In a January complaint to aviation regulators that was publicly released for the first time on Tuesday, Sam Salehpour, who claims to be a veteran Boeing employee and 40-year aerospace engineer, said parts of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Boeing 777 were misaligned during assembly and could pose safety threats.

The New York Times first reported his allegations on Tuesday.

Through lawyers, Salehpour said he observed problems during his work on both programs and documented his concerns in order to send them to the FAA and Boeing leadership.

He said employees were pressured to "overlook" the concerns in what he described as a "schedule over safety" culture, which he claimed affects more than 1,000 Dreamliners and at least 400 777s.

Regarding the 787, Salehpour said he observed "shortcuts employed by Boeing to reduce bottlenecks during the 787 assembly process," including placing "excessive stress on major airplane joints" and leaving drilling debris between certain key joints.

This could "significantly" reduce the lifespan of the plane due to metal fatigue and cause an accident, Salehpour said in a Tuesday call with journalists.

Salehpour also raised flags about the 777, saying in his complaint that a redesign of the jet's assembly process to speed up production used "unmeasured and unlimited" force to get the fuselage to fit together.

"I literally saw people jumping on the pieces of the airplane to get them to align," he told the media in a press conference on Tuesday. He noted his concerns about the 787 and 777 airplanes were backed by Boeing data but that his complaints were ignored.

The complaint is under investigation, the FAA told to BI.