Posted on 11/06/2019 9:51:58 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
A Boeing whistleblower has claimed that passengers on its 787 Dreamliner could be left without oxygen if the cabin were to suffer a sudden decompression.
John Barnett says tests suggest up to a quarter of the oxygen systems could be faulty and might not work when needed. He also claimed faulty parts were deliberately fitted to planes on the production line at one Boeing factory.
Mr Barnett, a former quality control engineer, worked for Boeing for 32 years, until his retirement on health grounds in March 2017.
From 2010 he was employed as a quality manager at Boeing's factory in North Charleston, South Carolina.
This plant is one of two that are involved in building the 787 Dreamliner...According to Mr Barnett, 57, the rush to get new aircraft off the production line meant that the assembly process was rushed and safety was compromised. The company denies this and insists that "safety, quality and integrity are at the core of Boeing's values".
In 2016, he tells the BBC, he uncovered problems with emergency oxygen systems. These are supposed to keep passengers and crew alive if the cabin pressurisation fails for any reason at altitude. Breathing masks are meant to drop down from the ceiling, which then supply oxygen from a gas cylinder.
Without such systems, the occupants of a plane would rapidly be incapacitated. At 35,000ft, (10,600m) they would be unconscious in less than a minute. At 40,000ft, it could happen within 20 seconds. Brain damage and even death could follow.
Although sudden decompression events are rare, they do happen. In April 2018, for example, a window blew out of a Southwest Airlines aircraft.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
The pro-union engineers do this to hurt Boeing’s Charleston facility.
How dare they?
I thought it was mandatory that whistleblower’s identities be protected at all costs?
It’s not good when it’s the QUALITY MANAGER revealing this. It would have been his job to report the problem. Who ignored it?
Why do we know the name of the Whistleblower?
I thought that was a no-no. Did Donald J. Trump Jr. out him?
Aren’t the drop down oxygen masks there just to muffle the screaming?
This assumes that the pilots don't make getting to a lower altitude their first concern in the event of loss of cabin pressure.
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