Engineer wary of shortcuts
Boeing whistleblower says that company was knowingly putting out defective planes
A Boeing engineer who went public last week with safety concerns about the company's 787 Dreamliner told a Senate panel on Wednesday that he was concerned that shortcuts the company was taking would eventually lead to a crash if they continued unchecked.
The engineer, Sam Salehpour, testified that in an attempt to address bottlenecks, Boeing introduced production shortcuts with the potential to lead to planes breaking apart during flights. Salehpour said the company was knowingly putting out defective planes and that he was punished by his superiors for raising his concerns.
“I have analyzed Boeing's own data to conclude that the company is taking manufacturing shortcuts on the 787 program that could significantly reduce the airplane's safety and the life cycle,” Salehpour told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's investigations subcommittee.
“Details that are the size of a human hair can be a matter of life and death,” Salehpour said.
Salehpour, who has been at Boeing for more than a decade, said the problems resulted from changes in how sections of the Dreamliner were fastened together during the manufacturing process. Boeing has acknowledged that manufacturing changes had been made but said that the durability of the airframe was not affected, and the company has continued to express confidence in the plane and its safety.
“Extensive and rigorous testing of the fuselage and heavy maintenance checks of nearly 700 in-service airplanes to date have found zero evidence of airframe fatigue,” Boeing said in a statement issued before the hearing, adding that the company was “fully confident in the safety and durability” of the plane.
The subcommittee's chair, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said that the panel did not want Boeing to fail but added that the company needed to be held accountable.
“It is a company that once was preeminent in engineering and safety,” Blumenthal said. “We want to restore the luster of that reputation and its business, which have been so sadly battered.”
Salehpour appeared on Capitol Hill about a week after The New York Times reported his claims about the Dreamliner, a wide-body jet that is both a key product for Boeing and one that has caused the company a litany of problems over the years.
Salehpour went public at a time when Boeing was already facing questions over the quality and safety of its passenger jets after a door panel blew off a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. Since then, the company has come under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and the Justice Department over the episode.
Salehpour's allegations about the Dreamliner, which relies heavily on lightweight composite materials, were the latest blow to the plane maker's reputation. He has said that sections of the plane's body were improperly fastened together and could break apart during flight after thousands of trips.
The company tried to rebut Salehpour's claims Monday by hosting reporters at the South Carolina plant where the Dreamliner is assembled. Two high-ranking engineers detailed the extensive testing that the aircraft had received and said that the company had found no evidence of fatigue in the plane's composite structure.
No one from Boeing was among the witnesses at the hearing. Last month, Blumenthal and the top Republican on the subcommittee, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, wrote to Boeing's CEO, Dave Calhoun, and asked him to testify Wednesday. Boeing is in talks with the senators about appearing before the subcommittee.
Salehpour testified alongside another Boeing whistleblower, Ed Pierson, a former senior manager who retired from the company in 2018 and testified before Congress the next year after two deadly crashes involving the 737 Max. They were joined by Joe Jacobsen, an engineer who worked at Boeing and the FAA, and Shawn Pruchnicki, a former airline pilot who teaches at Ohio State University.
President Joe Biden vowed to keep United States Steel Corp. American-owned and called for higher tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum as he sought to woo union workers ahead of November's election.
“US Steel has been an iconic American company for more than a century. And it should remain a totally American company American-owned, American-operated by American union steelworkers, the best in the world,” Biden told a crowd of union members Wednesday at the headquarters of the United Steelworkers in Pittsburgh.
“And that's going to happen, I promise you,” Biden added on the second day of a three-day swing through battleground Pennsylvania.
The union is strongly against a bid by a Japanese company, Nippon Steel Corp., to acquire US Steel for $14.1 billion, and the president last month ratcheted up his opposition as well.
Ahead of his remarks, a steelworker shouted out to Biden, “Let's keep US Steel in America!” to which the president responded “guaranteed.”
Microsoft's $13B OpenAI deal to avoid EU probe
Microsoft Corp.'s $13 billion investment into OpenAI Inc. is set to avoid a formal investigation by European Union merger watchdogs, calming fears that the relationship could be forced apart.
The European Commission has decided that the tie-up doesn't merit a formal probe because it falls short of a takeover and that Microsoft doesn't control the direction of OpenAI, according to people familiar with the matter.
The EU's antitrust arm said in January it was reviewing whether Microsoft's involvement with OpenAI should be vetted after a mutiny at the ChatGPT creator exposed deep ties between the two firms.
While most deals examined under the EU's merger regulation are eventually approved by Brussels watchdogs, officials are unafraid of wielding a veto if any competition concerns can't be fixed within strict deadlines.
Microsoft declined to comment beyond pointing to an earlier statement that its OpenAI partnership has “fostered more AI innovation and competition, while preserving independence for both companies.”
At the core of the partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI is the massive amounts of computer power required to keep the worldwide boom in generative AI going.
Tesla asking to reinstate $56B Musk pay package
Tesla is asking shareholders to restore a $56 billion pay package for CEO Elon Musk that was rejected by a Delaware judge this year, and to shift the company's corporate home to Texas.
The changes, to be voted on by stockholders at a June 13 annual meeting, could be a tougher sell than when it was first approved in 2018.
The Austin, Texas, electric vehicle maker is struggling with falling global sales, slowing electric vehicle demand, an aging model lineup and a stock price that has tumbled 37% so far this year.
In January, Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick ruled that Musk is not entitled to the landmark stock compensation that was to be granted over 10 years.
Ruling on a lawsuit from a shareholder, she voided the pay package, saying that Musk essentially controlled the board, making the process of enacting the compensation unfair to stakeholders.
But in a letter to shareholders released in a regulatory filing on Wednesday, Chairperson Robyn Denholm said that Musk has delivered on the growth it was looking for at the automaker, with Tesla meeting all of the stock value and operational targets in the 2018 package that was approved by shareholders. Shares are up 571% since the pay package began.
Compiled from Bloomberg and Associated Press reports.