Two former Boeing employees and a key contractor have revealed to The Post that despite the deaths of two whistleblowers within two months this year, they are more determined than ever to expose what they claim are dangerous practices at the now scandal-ridden manufacturer.
Roy Irvin, a veteran Boeing employee, and Santiago Paredes, who worked at Spirit AeroSystems (not to be confused with Spirit Airlines), are among at least 20 whistleblowers voicing their concerns about safety and quality issues at Boeing.
Their testimonies come in the wake of years of whistleblower accounts and congressional investigations plaguing Boeing.
A scathing report by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in September 2020 concluded that the two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 were the “horrific culmination” of “repeated and serious failures” by both the company and regulators.
In January, a fuselage plug blew off a new Alaskan Airlines Boeing 737 MAX-9 at 10,000 feet. A whistleblower told the Seattle Times that the fault lay with Boeing because after the fuselage was delivered by its manufacturer, Spirit, a panel was removed and reinstalled at Boeing’s Renton, Washington, factory without four crucial bolts.
Now, Irvin and Paredes are speaking out.
Irvin, who worked as a quality investigator at Boeing in North Charleston, SC, from 2011 to 2017, sought to ensure that $250 million 787 Dreamliner planes were ready for deployment before leaving the factory. He began working for the company in 2009.
Irvin stated that he “pushed back” almost daily against serious safety and quality issues he discovered on planes that had left the factory floor and were on the “flight line,” indicating they were supposed to have been thoroughly checked and approved.
