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A US activist group has accused Boeing of hiding information about electrical problems on a plane that later crashed.
The Aviation Safety Foundation claimed the plane, which crashed in Ethiopia in 2019, had a number of problems, including an “uncommanded roll” at low altitude.
The group said more than 1,000 planes currently flying could be at risk of electrical failures due to production issues.
The BBC has contacted Boeing for comment.
The foundation’s claim relates to a plane that crashed to the ground minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa in March 2019.
The plane was a 737 Max, a brand new model at the time. It was the second of its kind to crash, following an incident near Indonesia in late 2018.
The main cause of both crashes was poorly designed flight control systems that activated at the wrong time due to sensor failures.
The foundation published several documents on its website that it claimed were manufacturing records of the Ethiopian accident aircraft leaked by Boeing employees.
The document is highly technical and lists issues encountered during construction.
The foundation claims they “paint a clear picture of the chaotic production process at the 737 factory that produced the airplane.”
According to the foundation, apparent problems noted in the documents included missing electrical parts, missing or improperly installed wiring, and employees being put under tremendous pressure to rework defective parts.
The foundation claims it is related to electrical problems the plane had in the weeks and months before the crash.
Another document allegedly describes an incident on the same aircraft three weeks after it was delivered to its owner, Ethiopian Airlines.
This is a record of communications between Boeing and the airline, which records how the plane encountered an “uncommanded roll” at low altitude when preparing to land.
This was later blamed on an intermittent fault in the electrical wiring, according to the foundation.
The Aviation Safety Foundation claims the documents were withheld from “government authorities, law enforcement, airline customers, victims’ families and the public.”
This suggests that systemic production quality problems at Boeing factories have persisted, leading to problems such as the explosion on an Alaska Airlines flight earlier this year.
The foundation is headed by Ed Pierson, a former manager of Boeing’s 737 plant in Renton, Washington.
He became a high-profile figure after the two 737 Max accidents, testifying before U.S. lawmakers on multiple occasions.
Mr Pearson has long insisted that serious production problems at the factory played a key role in both crashes – something Boeing has repeatedly denied.
An official investigation into the Ethiopian Airlines crash by the Ethiopian Accident Investigation Bureau appeared to support that view, suggesting that a manufacturing defect was to blame for the sensor failure that ultimately triggered the crash.
However, US regulators denied the claim, saying there was no evidence of it and blamed the sensor failure on a collision with a foreign object, possibly a bird.
Boeing has not yet responded to the Aviation Safety Foundation’s latest claims.
However, company insiders deny claims that documents were withheld and insist that repeated investigations have failed to substantiate Mr Pearson’s allegations.
Earlier this month, Boeing’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg said he planned to work on restoring trust in the business.
He added that he would locate the headquarters in Seattle rather than the company’s headquarters in Arlington to be closer to the factory.
Regulators from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have asked the company to implement a “corrective action plan” to improve safety and quality controls.
But in a call with reporters, Pearson said people inside the plant described efforts to improve conditions on the line as “woefully inadequate” so far — largely because the plant knew about the FAA inspections in advance and could prepare for them.
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