Used soap instead of lubricant: Boeing failed 33 quality checks

The American aircraft manufacturer Boeing failed to pass 33 of 89 inspections by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which followed the incident with part of the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines plane falling off in flight, writes The New York Times.

According to the newspaper, the regulator assessed the company’s performance within six weeks. In addition to Boeing itself, inspections also took place at Spirit AeroSystems, which manufactures fuselages for the Boeing 737 MAX. Experts also studied the manufacturing processes of other parts of the aircraft, and also examined how employees of the aircraft manufacturing giant define the concept of quality and monitor it. 97 cases of non-compliance with production programs were revealed.

As a result, Boeing passed only 56 out of 89 inspections, and Spirit AeroSystems passed 6 out of 13. In particular, it turned out that in some cases liquid soap was used as a lubricant during the fitting process. And the cracks when installing the seal in the doors were checked with a hotel key card.

Let us recall that earlier the president of Emirates airline Tim Clark said that the progressive decline in Boeing’s standards is cause for concern. He noted a significant deterioration in the quality of aircraft and recalled the incident on January 5, 2024, when a fuselage section of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 came off during a flight, which led to depressurization of the cabin.

Another high-profile incident this year was when a door fell out in-flight on another Alaska Airlines plane, a Boeing 737. It turned out that it was not bolted down.

The 737 MAX model is one of the most problematic in the Boeing line. After plane crashes in 2018 in Ethiopia and 2019 in Indonesia, which killed 346 people, the use of these airliners was suspended worldwide for two years.

Boeing officials acknowledged that in both cases, the aircraft’s agility enhancement system malfunctioned before they crashed.