Exclusive: Jet Parts Scare

[cal04]

Families are flying off on their summer holidays on potentially dangerous aircraft, Sky News has learned.

In an exclusive report our US correspondent Andrew Wilson examines claims by two former auditors of Boeing that the aircraft manufacturer built some of its aircraft in the knowledge that certain parts were defective.

Wilson's six-month investigation has unearthed allegations that parts were wrongly made, had holes drilled in the wrong positions or did not fit properly on the aircraft.

The parts were used in assembling the Boeing 737NG between 1994 and 2002.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1231468,00.html

[The Sower]

1. Sky News = Rupert Murdoch

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22rupert+murdoch%22+%22sky+news%22&btnG=Search

[ovidsen]

6. Doesn't mean it's not true

Remember, Murdoch (via his Times of London) gave us the Downing Street memos....

[KT2000]

2. I don't get it

the parts scandal was revealed years ago.

[The Sower]

3. It's an LBN Exclusive...

...in Murdoch's world.


More Scandal!

[krispos42]

4. Duct tape and WD40

If it moves and it shouldn't, use the duck tape;
It it doesn't move and it should, use the WD40!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. Cumulitive effect, intended:

They do not want people traveling. Air fear, ticket prices, fuel prices...no way do they want people to travel.

Next up: internal visas.

[acmejack]

7. It's actually old news

And yes, it is true.

October 13, 2005

Documents made public in a whistleblower lawsuit filed against The Boeing Company suggest that thousands of unsafe and unapproved parts have been installed on jets the company produced between 1994 and 2001—and perhaps longer.

In U.S. ex rel Smith et al v. Boeing and Ducommun, which is slowly unfolding in a Wichita, Kansas federal courthouse, three former Boeing auditors accuse the company of accepting defective and uninspected parts from Ducommun, a supplier based in Carson, California. The whistleblowers, Jeannine Prewitt, Taylor Smith and James Ailes, allege that Boeing installed these unsafe and unapproved components on 32 jets built for the government. Because the case was filed under the False Claims Act, it is restricted to military jets and other airplanes sold to the government.

But Mother Jones has ascertained that the alleged structural defects in these parts, some classified as “flight safety critical” by the government, could likewise threaten the airworthiness of at least 1,600 commercial airplanes manufactured between 1994 and 2004—and still flying. In a recent motion to dismiss the case, Ducommun actually argues that the whistleblowers cannot prove that anyone in their company knew the parts were being sold to military or government buyers, because they also routinely supply commercial jets.

The whistleblowers reported an array of problems in 11 different components that Boeing uses to construct fuselages. Some of the most troubling allegations concern bear straps, which are a type of doubler, or reinforcement, used to support doorways; chords, which are arrayed radially around the contour of an aircraft and serve as the ribs of the fuselage; and failsafe chords, which are reinforced chords designed for particular locations on the airframe.


http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2005/10/flightrisk.html

But don't worry, I complained last night all I am going to about people putting days old months old even years old, in this case, news in the LBN forum. Work out.

[Demeter]

8. If Those Planes Are Still Flying , It's Current News

Until there's an all-clear and counted for report.