Another Boeing whistleblower has come forward, this time alleging safety lapses on the 777 and 787 wide-bodies

 Another Boeing whistleblower has come forward with concerns over one of the planemaker's family of passenger jetliners, pointing to safety concerns in at least 1,400 wide-body airplanes.(via Business Insider)

In a January complaint to aviation regulators that was publicly released for the first time on Tuesday, Sam Salehpour, a veteran Boeing employee and 40-year aerospace engineer, said parts of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Boeing 777 were misaligned during assembly and could pose safety threats.

The New York Times first reported his allegations.

Through lawyers, Salehpour said he observed problems during his work on both programs and documented his concerns to send to the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing leadership.

He said employees were pressured to "overlook" the concerns in what he described as a "schedule over safety" culture, which he claimed affects more than 1,000 Dreamliners and at least 400 777s.

Salehpour said he observed "shortcuts employed by Boeing to reduce bottlenecks during the 787 assembly process," including placing "excessive stress on major airplane joints" and leaving drilling debris between certain key joints.

This could "significantly" reduce the lifespan of the plane due to metal fatigue and cause an accident, Salehpour said in a Tuesday call with journalists.

Salehpour also raised flags about the 777, saying in his complaint that a redesign of the jet's assembly process to speed up production used "unmeasured and unlimited" force to get the fuselage to fit together.

"I literally saw people jumping on the pieces of the airplane to get them to align," he told the media in a press conference on Tuesday. He noted his concerns about the 787 and 777 airplanes were backed by Boeing data, but his complaints were ignored.

The complaint is under investigation, the FAA told BI.

Salehpour will also testify before a Senate subcommittee on April 17, the Times reported.

Boeing has backed its wide-bodies despite the whistleblower complaint, telling BI in an email statement on Tuesday that Salehpour's allegations are not representative of the work it has done to "ensure the quality and long-term safety of the aircraft."

"The issues raised have been subject to rigorous engineering examination under FAA oversight," Boeing said of the 787. "This analysis has validated that these issues do not present any safety concerns, and the aircraft will maintain its service life over several decades."

Boeing said the 787 can fly for more than 30 years before it needs heavy maintenance to extend its life and that it is fully confident in the safety of its in-production and in-service Dreamliners.

"Based on the previous fuselage testing up to 165,000 cycles and Boeing's extensive data gathering, testing, modeling, and analysis from 2020 to today — shared transparently with the FAA — Boeing currently expects these issues will not change or affect the expected lifespan of the 787 fuselages," Boeing said.