A Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft experienced four emergency landings within a month in India. The landing gear remained deployed throughout a short flight, an unusual occurrence. The pilots may have attempted to compensate by adjusting the flaps, potentially causing a loss of lift and descent.
Concerns about potential design flaws in the 787 have been raised previously. In 2021, Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour alleged that the company cut corners, leading to faulty engineering and potentially defective parts in some planes. He specifically pointed to issues with fuselage segment filling, potentially causing fatigue cracks.
Another whistleblower, John Barnett (deceased), alleged that Boeing falsified or ignored vital quality checks at a North Carolina plant and warned about problems with emergency oxygen systems and metal shavings posing a risk to electrical systems.
The aircraft’s landing gear also remained deployed throughout the short flight, when on a 787 the wheels are normally withdrawn as soon as they leave the runway.
One possibility is that the landing gear became stuck and that the pilots responded by partially retracting the flaps to reduce drag and maintain the climb. If the adjustment was overdone, the plane would lose lift and begin to descend.
Questions had previously been raised about possible flaws in the construction of the 787.
Sam Salehpour, a Boeing engineer, came forward in 2021 with claims that the firm had cut corners on the Dreamliner, allowing “faulty engineering and faulty evaluation of the data” which meant that defective parts had potentially been installed in some planes.
Mr Salehpour claimed to have noticed issues with the filling in of gaps between fuselage segments, known as shimming, which he said could cause fatigue cracks over repeated flights.
John Barnett, another whistleblower, alleged that Boeing repeatedly falsified or ignored vital quality checks at a plant in North Carolina where some of its 787s are assembled.
Mr Barnett – a quality inspector who was later found dead aged 62 – also warned of problems with emergency oxygen systems and his discovery of metal shavings that he said posed a risk of shorting to electrical systems.
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