In my former career, I traveled a lot, having done business on four continents; I spent a lot of time sealed in an aluminum tube traveling at hundreds of miles an hour, 30,000 feet in the air, surrounded by strangers. In those days I didn't worry overly much about the specific airplanes. I reckoned they had a pretty good track record, and at that time, they did.

Of late, though, airplane manufacturer Boeing, which has an illustrious history of such great machines as the B-17 and the B-29, has suffered some problems with aircraft failing in flight. On Wednesday a group of whistleblowers, all former and current Boeing employees, offered some frankly shocking testimony to the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

A Boeing engineer turned whistleblower told senators Wednesday that the company repeatedly sidelined and threatened him when he raised safety concerns about their aircraft, saying: “I was told, frankly, to shut up.”

Sam Salehpour, who is still employed by the company, said he even faced physical threats after raising concerns.

“My boss said, ‘I would have killed someone who said what you said in a meeting,’” he told the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Salehpour, who first told his story to the New York Times, testified as a whistleblower after he said the company dismissed his concerns for more than three years.

“I was ignored, I was told not to create delays, I was told, frankly, to shut up,” Salehpour said, comparing the company’s safety culture to NASA before the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

“The attitude from the highest level is just to push out a definitive part, regardless of what it is,” he said.

A Boeing whistleblower told senators the company repeatedly ignored and threatened him when he raised safety concerns about their aircraft.

“I was told to shut up, I received physical threats ... My boss said, ‘I would have killed someone who said what you said in a meeting.’” pic.twitter.com/NbWwH2Ds4P

— POLITICO (@politico) April 17, 2024

The testimony offered here is alarming. Mr. Salehpour, who is still employed by Boeing, testified to having seen Boeing employees "jump up and down" on parts of aircraft under production to make the parts fit, instead of the more secure and time-consuming process of "shimming" the parts, which means to insert thin strips of metal to produce the proper fit.

Another whistleblower, Ed Pierson, a former Boeing engineer, testified that records do exist of the Boeing worker who installed the door plug that blew off a Boeing 737 MAX airplane over Oregon in January, stating that he had personally turned those records over to the FBI. The FBI has not commented on the matter.

Previously on RedState: Boeing Stocks Continue to Fall After Engineer Reports Shoddy Work - Can They Recover, or Are They Doomed? 

Boeing Whistleblower Claims 787 Could Fall Apart and 'Drop to the Ground,' Wouldn't Put His Family on One

This body of testimony is alarming to anyone who flies the friendly skies. Every time one of us boards a commercial airliner we place a great deal of trust not only in the flight crew and the maintenance crews who work for the airlines but also in the airplane manufacturer. Our lives are literally in their hands, and it appears to be a matter of great good luck that the various incidents around Boeing aircraft have not resulted in more injuries and deaths. Further, if the claims of these whistleblowers prove accurate, Boeing may be facing a legal wrecking ball.

My father, a WW2 veteran, was fond of being able to accurately state that the last airplane he ever flew in was the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. He described it as "being put in a tin bucket full of bolts and being shaken," and would describe the roar of the four huge piston engines, the nonstop vibration of the airframe, and the icy chill of taking the unpressurized craft to high altitudes, but like many of the crews, Dad was clearly fond of that great old warbird. Boeing, in those days, was a great company and played no small part in the Allied victory in that war. 

Dad and his fellows would no doubt be disappointed to see the problems Boeing has brought on themselves today.