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US regulators complain of 'undue pressure' from Boeing

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Federal Aviation Authority engineers say they faced "verbal abuse" after raising technical issues about the Boeing 787. (www.aljazeera.com) More...

Christian Parada
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Ruger9X19
Ruger9X19 3
Well looks like they found the thin skinned DAR/DER.
Most of the engineers I've dealt with at Boeing are great at what they do, but their are a few prima donna's among them.
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telc2008
Tom Clark 3
Boeing is the one under pressure... financial, that is. That tail may be wagging the dog. Intimidation of FAA doesn't make airplanes safer.
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kennedye
kennedye 2
Heh. It isn't exactly news that Boeing effed up badly (and repeatedly) during the gestation of the 787 program. Even employees will admit to that. (And bitch about the KA-46 eating their bonuses.)
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davidrbarnes
David Barnes 3
The article title, and hence the squawk title, are misleading here. These aren't "US regulators" but rather Boeing engineers authorized by the FAA to review and approve the technical data on the FAA's behalf. (Steve Whelan provided a good summary of the designee process elsewhere in these comments.)

Also, the article's credibility was further shot in the subtitle when they referred to the "Federal Aviation Authority", of which there is no such agency. It's the "Federal Aviation Administration", and a quick check on "FAA.gov" would clear that up.

High level journalism I'm not seeing.
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Kairho
Kairho Carroll 1
Later they said, "Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authority" so maybe a dab of credibility restored?
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carlsonj
James Carlson 1
The report doesn't surprise me that much. I've seen up close the same sort of behavior occur outside of the aviation world. Any time management schedules conflict with technical review, there's bound to be some trouble, and the scope of the trouble depends on how much respect the senior managers have for the technical process and the political savvy of the engineers upholding the process. I don't have inside contacts at Boeing, and sometimes these things work out fine in the end, but I've certainly seen the same sort of conflicts go quite badly at previous jobs.
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skylab72
skylab72 1
My network intrusion alarms went off when I clicked on this story from Aljazera. Three different HTML attacks were launched. I did not do any forensics so I do not know if the attacks were from the site or if the site was compromised when I visited, BUT If I cannot trust the site I cannot trust the story.
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connomar
Martin Connor 1
Did I read that correctly? Boeing pays the salaries of the FAA Engineers who monitor the process? Surely that is outrageous.
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EvacGuy
Steve Whelan 7
This is a common practice in the industry. The FAA designates qualified individuals to do various tasks such as conducting exams for pilot certificates (Designated Pilot Examiner) or inspecting and declaring an aircraft design airworthy (Designated Airworthiness Representative) and people who check the engineering of parts for aircraft (Designated Engineering Representative) These people are trained by the FAA and authorized by the FAA to perform specific functions like an FAA inspector would. However, they don't work directly for the FAA and are not paid by the tax payers. Many work for themselves as independent contractors. For all but one of my airman certificates I used a DPE and paid them directly. People who build amateur built aircraft have the choice of requesting the aircraft be inspected by and have the airworthiness certificate issued directly by and FAA inspector. Which has no fee. But, can take months to get scheduled or, they can hire a DAR to do the same. All aircraft manufacturers hire DARs and DERs. If they didn't, no design would ever be certified in a timely manner.
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rdlink
rdlink 1
aljazeera writes an article claiming this "undue pressure" and this quote comes directly from the article:

It has released details of the cases in response to a freedom of information request made by Al Jazeera more than two-and-a-half years ago, as part of the award-winning investigative documentary, Broken Dreams: The Boeing 787.

Credibility shot.
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thecohorts
Matt LaMay 0
The credibility was shot when it was written by aljazeera
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thecohorts
Matt LaMay -1
I was skeptical of this article, then I saw it was written by aljazeera. I lol'd
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