Boeing fuselages ‘regularly left factory with 200 defects’

A WHISTLEBLOWER has claimed one of Boeing’s largest suppliers regularly allowed aircraft fuselages to leave its factory with up to 200 defects.

Santiago Paredes, who worked for Spirit Aerosystems in Kansas between 2010 and 2022, told the BBC he often found defects on parts being prepared for shipping to Boeing. Mr Paredes even earned the nickname “showstopper” from colleagues for slowing down production when he raised concerns, he claimed.

Before he departed from the company, he led a team of inspectors based at the end of the production line for Boeing’s 737 Max planes.

Mr Paredes told the BBC he was accustomed to finding “anywhere from 50 to 100, 200” defects on fuselages – the main body of the plane – bound for Boeing.

“I was finding a lot of missing fasteners, a lot of bent parts, sometimes even missing parts,” he said.

Spirit said it “strongly disagree[d]” with the allegations. A spokesman said: “We are vigorously defending against his claims.” Boeing declined to comment to the BBC on Mr Paredes’s claims.

Spirit was once part of Boeing and remains the US aircraft maker’s primary supplier. It builds the fuselage for the 737 Max aircraft at its factory in Wichita, Kansas, and also makes large parts of the 787 Dreamliner.

Mr Paredes claimed he was put under pressure at Spirit to be less rigorous in his quality control inspections.

He told the BBC: “They just wanted the product shipped out. 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 … If the numbers looked good, the state of the fuselages didn’t really matter.”

Mr Paredes’s claims form part of his testimony in legal action that angry shareholders have brought against Spirit.

The supplier, along with Boeing, has been in the spotlight since a door panel was blown out of a Boeing 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight, forcing the aircraft into an emergency landing. According to investigators, the door had originally been fitted by Spirit.