PLANE parts from Boeing's biggest supplier regularly left the factory riddled with defects, another whistleblower has claimed.
Santiago Paredes, a former quality inspector at Spirit AeroSystems in Kansas, broke his silence against the controversy-hit plane maker in another major bombshell.
The Kansas-based employee revealed that when parts were being prepared for shipment to Boeing, he would frequently discover as many as 200 defects.
Mr Paredes claimed that he even earned the moniker "showstopper" as he would halt production whenever he attempted to address his concerns.
In an exclusive interview with the BBC and the American network CBS, Mr Paredes made the accusations against Spirit and detailed his experiences throughout his time at the company from 2010 to 2022.
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This is the first time Mr Paredes, a former Air Force mechanic, has spoken publicly.
Before his departure from the supplier, he led a team of inspectors based at the end of the 737 Max production line.
According to him, he was used to discovering "anywhere from 50 to 100, 200" flaws on fuselages, or the main body of the aircraft, that were scheduled for shipment to Boeing.
He said: "I was finding a lot of missing fasteners, a lot of bent parts, sometimes even missing parts."
Spirit told the BBC it "strongly disagree[d]" with the allegations.
"We are vigorously defending against his claims," said a spokesperson for Spirit, which remains Boeing's largest supplier.
Boeing declined comment to the BBC.
The Sun has also approached Spirit AeroSystems for comment.
A Boeing spokesperson told The Sun: "Boeing has taken significant action to improve the quality of Spirit AeroSystems fuselages.
"On March 1, we moved inspection and rework teams to their factory in Wichita and have since only allowed fully-inspected fuselages to be shipped to Boeing.
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"This action has reduced non-conformances by 80 percent. Also on March 1, Boeing shared that we entered into discussions to acquire Spirit AeroSystems."
While at Spirit, Mr Paredes found several flaws, some of which were minor, but others were more significant, he told the BBC.
He added that he felt pressured to be "less rigorous".
The whistleblower claimed: "They always made a fuss about why I was finding it, why I was looking at it.
"They just wanted the product shipped out. They weren't focused on the consequences of shipping bad fuselages.
"They were just focused on meeting the quotas, meeting the schedule, meeting the budget… If the numbers looked good, the state of the fuselages didn't really matter."
Many of Mr Paredes' alleged experiences at Spirit are part of his testimony in a legal action filed by shareholders against the company.
But he is simply referred to as "Former Employee 1" in legal documents.
Mr Paredes claimed that things reached a breaking point when his manager allegedly ordered him to alter the way defects were reported in order to lower their total quantity.
He claimed that after he objected, he was demoted and sent to a different area of the facility.
The former employee said: "I felt I was being threatened, and I felt I was being retaliated against for raising concerns."
Subsequently, Mr. Paredes wrote to Spirit's then-CEO, Tom Gentile, and lodged a "ethics complaint" with the company's HR department.
In that message, he wrote: "I have lost faith on the quality organisation here at Spirit and this is my last cry for help".
After his complaint was partially sustained, Mr Paredes was later given back pay and put back in his leadership position.
Shortly after, he departed from the company.
Even now, he still says he wouldn't want to travel on a 737 Max if aircraft still had defects from the Wichita manufacturing.
"I'd never met a lot of people who were scared of flying until I worked at Spirit," he said.
"I'd never met a lot of people who were scared of flying until I worked at Spirit," he said.
"And then, being at Spirit, I met a lot of people who were afraid of flying - because they saw how they were building the fuselages."
Spirit AeroSystems and Boeing have both come under heavy scrutiny after a door fell from a brand new 737 Max shortly after takeoff in January - leaving a gaping hole in the plane's side.
According to investigations, the door was originally installed by Spirit but was later removed by Boeing personnel to correct improper riveting.
The Federal Aviation Administration, a US regulator, began an audit of both companies' production procedures as a result of the incident.
The FAA then discovered numerous instances in which the businesses disregarded manufacturing control procedures.
Mr Paredes' bombshell claims come shortly after a Boeing 737 plane with 78 onboard skidded off the runway as its wing burst into flames in Senegal.
The incident happened early this morning after the plane's left wing and engine reportedly caught fire during landing at the Dakar airport.
The problem on the Transair flight happened after the plane took off from Bamako Airport.
The aircraft reportedly experienced a hydraulic issue before the problematic landing at Blaise Diagne Airport.
There is no suggestion that Boeing is to blame and the exact cause of this latest incident is not yet known.
A day earlier, a Boeing cargo plane crash-landed on its nose after its front landing gear failed in another major incident.
Earlier this month, a Boeing 747 was caught on camera bouncing along the runway.
The Lufthansa Airlines plane was seen dramatically smashing into the ground twice in Los Angeles Airport (LAX) before the pilot gave up and aborted the rough landing.
Two days earlier, a wheel fell off a Boeing 737 fully loaded with passengers as smoke billows from the commercial jet.
Dramatic footage showed the plane grinding along the runway before it was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff.
The multiple mishaps come as the aircraft is giant is facing controversy over safety concerns.
