FAA considers huge fine for Boeing over misconduct

The United States' Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced yesterday it is considering a huge fine for Boeing over alleged misconduct relating to pressure placed on employees in charge of safety inspections on behalf of the FAA, by the company's senior management including some of those in charge of Boeing's prestigious 787 program.

Boeing 787-8 at Boeing Field. Photo by Brandon Farris | AeroNewsX

This new allegation against the Seattle-based aircraft manufacturer once again exposes the serious flaws relating to the way the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) delegates oversight to Boeing. A lack of oversight was indeed found to be a factor in the 737 MAX design flaws and subsequent groundings.

The way the system is currently structured, the FAA delegates employees from Boeing to become safety representatives and report back to the FAA after completing independent inspections on aircraft production lines. These Boeing employees who act as FAA delegates are known collectively as the Organisation Designation Authority (ODA) and consist of engineers, inspectors and managers.

However, this current system of regulatory oversight leaves the Organisation Designation Authority (ODA) open to potential internal pressure from Boeing Company management which is the exact occurrence that was yesterday reported by the FAA. From information contained in the official FAA charging letter to Boeing, the vice president of the 787 program, the senior quality manager and the director of delivery were all accused by the FAA of overseeing quality control of the 787 program, a role within the organisation which is only intended to be performed by the FAA's handpicked ODA safety assurance team of employees. The above mentioned senior officials have all been charged with this offence by the FAA in a fine amounting to $1.25 million USD.

According to the allegations from the FAA's charging letter, these Boeing senior managers "pressured" and "harassed" employees involved in the ODA to perform safety inspections on aircraft quicker in order to expedite their entry into service and delivery to customers. One of the senior managers was also accused of "pressuring an inspector to complete a compliance inspection on an aircraft which was not ready for such inspection to occur". According to FAA findings, the Boeing management continually watched safety inspectors complete their work and threatened them with retrenchment if their inspections were not completed quick enough, which is a huge breach of FAA regulations.

In the charging letter, the FAA describes Boeing managements behaviour as a huge risk to the integrity of the Organisation Delegation Authority's role. The mentioned allegations were all related to the manufacturer's South Carolina final assembly plant for the 787 at Charleston International Airport.

In response to the FAA probe, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal and Boeing Chief Engineer Greg Hyslop sent a joint message to the company's engineering managers which reads as follows: "Boeing's status as an ODA holder remains a privilege, not a right, and we have an obligation to work for that privilege every day."

"When exercising delegated authority, Boeing-based ODA representatives are the FAA, and must be treated with the same respect and deference that is owed to our regulator," the letter continued.

The company memo also goes on to say that "just one mistake could lead to the undoing of years of hard earnt trust with the FAA."