Boeing Engineers Claim Retaliation After Voicing Safety Concerns

According to a report from KIRO news in Seattle, two Boeing engineers claim they suffered retaliation over safety concerns in 2022.

  One engineer has left the company, and the other is still there

  KIRO is reporting the two engineers were involved in work on Boeing 787 and 777 airliners built in Everett. They insisted on additional safety checks on certain areas of the aircraft.

The two insisted on the company doing a re-evaluation of work done to comply with new FAA regulations, but say Boeing delayed and stalled on their demands for six months before finally performing the work.

The two engineers then received negative performance reviews, according to The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or (SPEEA).

According to KIRO:

"The case involves the Organization Delegation Authorization (ODA) process, which allows Boeing employees to certify the company’s work on behalf of the FAA. The two engineers, acting under ODA authority, insisted on using a different set of assumptions in the analysis of the on-board computer networks on Boeing 777s and 787s to comply with the new FAA guidance."

One engineer has left the company, the other has had a grievance filed by SPEEA on their behalf. The work in question took place in 2022. According to KIRO:

 "SPEEA Director of Strategic Development, Rich Plunkett, stated, “Whether it’s capital R ‘Retaliation’ or not, the fact remains that the two ODA-designated SPEEA members did the right thing and stuck to their guns despite heavy pressure from Boeing, and then got hit with career-damaging performance reviews. This helps show why Boeing doesn’t have a healthy safety culture.”