(GoRealNewsNow.com) – Despite the deaths of two Boeing whistleblowers within two months this year, two former employees of the company and its key contractor informed that they are more determined than ever to expose the dangerous practices at the now-scandal-scarred manufacturer.
Roy Irvin, a Boeing veteran, and Santiago Paredes, who worked at Spirit AeroSystems are among at least 20 whistleblowers voicing concerns about safety and quality issues at the aerospace giant.
Their testimony follows years of Boeing being plagued by whistleblower accounts and congressional probes.
From 2011 until 2017, Irvin was a quality investigator at Boeing in North Charleston, SC. He ensured that $250 million 787 Dreamliner planes were ready to fly before leaving the factory. He started at the company in 2009.
Irvin said he “pushed back” almost daily against serious safety and quality issues on planes that had left the factory floor and were on the “flight line,” meaning they were supposedly ready to go.
But they were not, Irvin alleged, and he was often forced to be “insubordinate” because he repeatedly called out the problems he saw.
“Missing safety devices on hardware or untightened hardware means that you’re not going to be able to control the airplane if those fail,” Irvin claimed. “The safety device is on there. If the fastener is not secured correctly, it’s going to fall off and you’re not gonna be able to control the airplane.”
Moreover, Brian Knowles, a Charleston, SC, attorney who represented Irvin and Paredes, informed that his law firm had fielded dozens of new calls from potential whistleblowers in recent weeks.
In turn, Paredes was a production inspector for Spirit AeroSystems for 12 years before leaving in 2022.
He expressed that he was shocked when he arrived at the company and, he alleged, saw hundreds of defects on the production line. He was even more horrified when he was pressured not to say anything.
“I was at the end of the production line and so I was supposed to be looking at the finished product before they shipped it to Boeing,” Paredes stated.
“Instead, I saw missing parts, incomplete parts, frames that had temporary clamps and missing fasteners, dents in the parts, damaged parts, cut rivets, issues that might occur but should be fixed before they got to me,” he added.
Both men expressed they were not afraid of speaking out despite conspiracy theories that took root after the deaths of other employees.
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