When one saw the name Boeing, or when they boarded a Boeing airliner in the past, they knew that they had nothing to worry about. After all, Boeing is a powerhouse when it comes to heavy-lift aircraft; they have been in the game since World War II. From the 707, which was the first successful commercial aviation jetliner to the 787 Dreamliner, Boeing dominated the heavy-lift airliner industry for over half a century. Boeing was only overtaken by their rival, Airbus, in 2019, when Boeing suffered their first major controversy, grounding most of their newly produced 737-MAX airliners after two of these aircraft crashed, one from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019, and the other from Lion Air Flight 610 on October 29, 2018. Together, both crashes killed 346 people in total. However the troubles did not stop there for Boeing, they got much much worse. 

Monday, another bombshell to the beleaguered aviation giant hit, when a Boeing engineer accused the company of purposefully making changes to the assembly of the 787 Dreamliner that potentially severely reduce the life span of the aircraft, as well as allowing some shortcuts to be made during assembly that may be unsafe. 

The whistleblower’s claims were detailed in a recent exposé by The New York Times and supported by documents sent to the FAA. Salehpour’s allegations suggest that the manufacturer took shortcuts that could have led to the slew of accidents that have plagued the company since January.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating claims made by a Boeing engineer who says that sections of the fuselage of the 787 Dreamliner are improperly fastened together and could break apart mid-flight after thousands of trips.

The engineer, Sam Salehpour, who worked on the plane, detailed his allegations in interviews with The New York Times and in documents sent to the F.A.A. A spokesman for the agency confirmed that it was investigating the allegations but declined to comment on them.

These new allegations come just after another Boeing engineer, named John Barnett, was found dead in his truck in South Carolina, with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. His apparent suicide came just before his planned appearance in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s investigations subcommittee, where he was set to testify about even more shocking allegations of manufacture shortcuts and safety measure failings on the production lines of their airliners. 

These allegations also come after Boeing CEO David Calhoun stepped down in March after a slew of airborne mishaps on Boeing airliners, including the recent incident from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 over Portland, Oregon. The flight, on a 737 MAX 9, was forced to make an emergency landing when an emergency exit door plug blew out and off the aircraft. Today, Boeing's stock prices are down almost 80 points since the beginning of the year and are down at their lowest levels since this time last year. 

The stock prices sliding is not the only issue Boeing is facing. More and more flyers are flat-out refusing to fly on Boeing aircraft, regardless of what model and when it was made. The mood with flyers is complicated as well, with a few separate issues causing their flying anxiety. With complaints and allegations of poorly trained flight crews and mechanics causing human error issues, all the way to airplanes falling apart mid-air because of incompetence and willfully allowing shoddy manufacturing practices, flyers would rather seek out other flight options on Airbus airliners. It also does not help that the North American airline industry has been suffering from a severe shortage of pilots and maintenance personnel. 

Boeing has to convince not just their shareholders, but they have to convince their buyers in the airlines and the people that buy the tickets to fly. The road to rehabbing the company's reputation is going to be long and hard, with Airbus taking full advantage of Boeing's problems. For the fifth straight year, Boeing is being beaten by Airbus for the global market share of commercial aviation aircraft. As of January 2024, Boeing has 42 percent of the market, compared to 50 percent from 2019. If current trends and controversies continue, Boeing could see an even bigger slip on the trading floor, as well as the global market. Unfortunately for Boeing however, the future looks very uncertain; the last thing they need is to have another incident or engineer come out with more allegations of wrongdoing.