Boeing blasts scathing Al Jazeera 787 Dreamliner documentary

From compromised quality control to drug use in the factory, a scathing new documentary paints a troubling picture of problems that plagued the development of Boeing’s 787. But the company is blasting the Al Jazeera report, calling it “as biased a production as we have seen in some time.”

The 48-minute documentary “Broken Dreams: The Boeing 787” debuted worldwide Wednesday. It covers familiar ground including the inaugural rollout of the first plane at an elaborate ceremony with a jet later revealed to be far from finished, the controversial opening of a second factory in South Carolina, the myriad delays and production problems that followed, and the problems with lithium ion batteries that grounded the entire fleet of 787’s for six months in 2013.

Far more inflammatory are allegations about safety and drug use in an interview with an unnamed worker at the North Charleston plant, along with secret recordings made with other workers.

In several exchanges, workers with their faces blurred and voices altered question the the quality of the work being done on planes at the factory, and their comfort with the finished product.

“Worker D: I wouldn’t fly on one of these planes

Worker A: You wouldn’t? Why wouldn’t you?

Worker D: Huh?

Worker A: Why wouldn’t you?

Worker D: Because I see the quality of the [expletive] [expletive] going down around here.”

The documentary also features interviews with a former engineer who claims he was fired for raising safety concerns, the former president of Boeing’s engineering union SPEEA, who reiterates long-aired quality concerns, and others who allege the company put schedule ahead of safety.

The documentary and extensive website sections dedicated to the report are damning. But Boeing rebuts all of the allegations in a lengthy statement.

“It is unfortunate that the producers of this television program appear to have fallen into the trap of distorting facts, relying on claims rejected by courts of law, breathlessly rehashing as ‘news’ stories that have been covered exhaustively in the past, and relying on anonymous sources, who appear intent only on harming The Boeing Company,” the statement says.

Read Boeing’s statement in full.

The company says it worked to accommodate the producers and provide access, interviews and “full and open responses” to Al Jazeera’s questions, but the producers ignored many of the facts to satisfy their own agenda.

“The 787 is an outstanding airplane delivering value to our customers, but we have also talked candidly in public about its challenging development process. There are no tougher critics about our early performance than Boeing. Unfortunately, the reporting team appears to have chosen to take advantage of our trust and openness and abused their position from the outset by deliberately misrepresenting the purpose, objective and scope of their planned coverage,” says the statement.

The documentary paints a particularly unflattering picture of the employees and the work being done at the South Carolina plant. But Boeing fiercely defends the plant and people there.

“Airplanes, whether delivered from South Carolina or Washington, meet the highest safety and quality standards that are verified through robust test, verification and inspection processes. Our data of the current 787 fleet in service show parity in the quality and performance of airplanes manufactured in both locations,” the statement says.

Longtime Boeing watcher and Aviation analyst Scott Hamilton with Leeham News calls the documentary “a disappointing effort.”

After watching the report Wednesday, he says there was little in the way of new news.

“It was largely a rehash of what I would characterize as ancient history.”

Hamilton says the first 16 minutes of the documentary were fine, providing an accurate historical context. But he says from there it degenerates quickly into what he calls a misleading report.

He’s particularly critical of an interview with 787 head Larry Loftis, who Boeing says was not given an indication of the line of questioning he was subjected to about the allegations made in the documentary.

“What I thought was unfair that Boeing went into this thinking this was just going to be kind of a documentary history of the evolution of the 787 and instead it really just became an ambush,” he says. “Al Jazeera absolutely had an obligation to let Boeing know where it was headed so Loftis, or whomever, would be prepared.

Hamilton says most troubling is the implication Boeing would consciously compromise safety to rush the 787 into service.

“It’s in nobody’s interest to put out an unsafe airplane,” he says. “If Boeing gets a reputation of putting out an unsafe airplane, who’s going to go buy the darn thing? and of course, the airlines want no part of an airplane that is unsafe.”

Hamilton says while it’s fair to characterize the development and early years of the 787 an absolute debacle, the report unfairly misrepresents Boeing.

“Has the airplane had quality control issues? Absolutely. And Boeing acknowledges it has has. Has it had dispatch reliability issues? Absolutely. And Boeing acknowledges that, but that’s different than being an unsafe airplane,” he says.

Hamilton also criticizes Al Jazeera for failing to mention any of the successes or benefits of the program, including a number of elements developed for the 787 that are now being incorporated into other Boeing planes including composite wing technology and interior design. And he says with more than 1,000 firm orders and scores of commitments, the program will undoubtedly prove to be profitable and successful despite all the problems.