FAA opens investigation into Boeing over ""falsified"" 787 inspection records, possible delays

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has opened an investigation into Boeing over the aircraft manufacturer's employees allegedly falsifying aircraft records. Boeing had voluntary informed the FAA of this in April, stating that it had potentially not performed adequate inspections on the 787 Dreamliner aircraft at its South Carolina production facility. According to the US federal aviation agency, Boeing had said that it may ""not have completed required inspection to confirm adequate bonding and grounding where the wings join the fuselage on certain 787 Dreamliner airplanes."" The agency added: ""The FAA is investigating whether Boeing completed the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records."" It added that Boeing is reportedly inspecting all of its 787 aircraft still in production and will be required to ""create a plan to address the in-service fleet."" In an email sent to Boeing South Carolina staff on April 29, 787 program lead Scott Stocker had said: ""We promptly informed our regulator about what we learned and are taking swift and serious corrective action with multiple teammates."" Stocker said that the engineering team and found that the ""misconduct did not create an immediate safety of flight issue."" Though, he admitted that it ""will impact our customers and factory teammates, because the test now needs to be conducted out of sequence on airplanes in the build process."" The email revealed that a teammate had witnessed the ""irregularity in a required conformance test in wing body join"" and had raised it with management. As Boeing seeks to reform its safety culture that was condemned by the FAA in February, Stocker said it was ""critical"" for all of its staff to ""speak up"" in the event that they ""see something that may not look right, or that needs attention."" Stocker is apparently meeting with a number of teams to discuss the issue to ensure the event ""doesn't happen again."" The FAA said that it will ""take any necessary action"" as the investigation unfolds to facilitate aviation's safety.