‘Two Boeing models I would not fly’: Boeing whistleblower reveals planes subject to years of safety failures

Boeing whistleblower Merle Meyers, a 30-year quality manager at the company, joined “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio to discuss the new Netflix documentary “Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing,” which features his allegations that scrap parts were installed on aircraft and that workers who raised concerns were punished.

KIRO host John Curley asked Meyers point-blank whether there are Boeing planes he would refuse to board.

“Two Boeing models I would not fly,” Meyers said. “The 787 and the 737 MAX.”

Curley noted the 737 MAX is Boeing’s workhorse aircraft, flying more miles than any other model in the fleet, and suggested someone could argue the sheer volume of flights makes it statistically safe. Meyers was unmoved.

“You should not have had 346 deaths from two crashes,” Meyers said. “Those are 346 people that should be alive.”

Curley asked whether it was painful to speak publicly against the company that shaped his family’s identity.

“Yeah, it’s devastating,” Meyers said.

Meyers says Boeing’s safety culture died when ‘money people’ replaced ‘airplane people’

Meyers said the safety culture began to erode after Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas and leadership shifted from engineers to executives focused on financial performance.

“They really didn’t have a clue about the airplane or the airplane culture,” Meyers said. “They didn’t have the feel for making an airplane. They could make a Steinway piano to the spec, and it would sound terrible, because they didn’t have the passion that the Boeing people do. These are money people; these are not airplane people. We have not had an airplane CEO since Alan Mulally.”

Curley asked when Meyers first noticed Boeing was cutting corners. Meyers said he began documenting problems as early as 2003 and started flagging scrap parts entering aircraft production around 2015, using Boeing’s internal Speak Up program to launch investigations against managers.

“Once Speak Up started, everyone started seeing my name after investigation after investigation,” Meyers said. “Who in the hell is this guy?”

Meyers said his own ethics adviser warned him what was coming.

“‘Merle, you’re going to be singled out and made an example of,'” Meyers recalled being told. “And nothing changed. I kept doing what I was doing till the very end.”

Meyers says executives knew about parts problems and did nothing

Meyers said vice presidents were present when improper parts movement was discussed openly and never intervened.

“I’ve heard one vice president in a daily standup meeting say, ‘I don’t care how you get this part to the airplane, you get it to the airplane,'” Meyers said. “There were mechanics, engineers, inspectors there. It was a daily thing on the floor.”

Meyers described a system where parts were stolen from one aircraft to meet schedule deadlines on another, destroying the traceability records that are foundational to aviation safety.

“A senior manufacturing manager said, ‘The flap on that tanker was stolen from my plane back here,'” Meyers said. “And VPs attend this meeting. No one cares.”

Curley asked whether workers actually stamped off on parts they knew were defective. Meyers said they did.

“Sometimes, yes,” Meyers said. “This is why after the Air India crash, there were many inspectors in the Boeing company that went into the system, looking back, ‘Did I do any work on that plane?’ That’s a guilty conscience.”

Meyers said he was eventually forced out, given a choice between signing a severance agreement or meeting an impossible set of demands.

“You can quit and work to the agreement of this severance package, or here are 12 things you have to fix. You fix them in 30 days, or I’ll fire you,” Meyers said.

He said his departure was handled by text message, and Boeing told his co-workers a different story.

“They were instructed to coach people. ‘Well, Merle decided to quit,'” Meyers said. “Tell his employees and anyone else that asked that.”

Meyers chose to go on record with real name after the death of fellow whistleblower

Curley asked why Meyers decided to use his real name when The New York Times reached out after the Alaska Airlines door plug incident. Meyers said the death of fellow whistleblower John Barnett, who was found dead from a gunshot wound during his testimony against Boeing in 2024, made the decision for him.

“When I heard about John, I said, ‘Yeah, use my name, and you can release the 15 years’ worth of data that I have shared with you,'” Meyers said.

Curley asked whether the Netflix documentary or public pressure would lead to real change at Boeing. Meyers did not think so.

“Not with this leadership,” Meyers said. “They are incapable of turning things around.”

Meyers said the problem is getting worse, not better.

“Engineers now at Boeing are being told, ‘Don’t submit your best work,'” Meyers said. “Because then they’re going to have to put in writing why it’s rejected.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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