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Another Boeing whistleblower says he faced retaliation for reporting 'shortcuts'
A Boeing 787 Dreamliner accelerates down the runway during its first flight in December, 2009 in Everett, Wash.
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A Boeing 787 Dreamliner accelerates down the runway during its first flight in December, 2009 in Everett, Wash.
Stephen Brashear/Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Longtime Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour went public this week with alarming claims about two of the company’s jets, including the 787 Dreamliner.
In a virtual meeting with reporters, Salehpour said Boeing was so eager to meet its production goals that it took “shortcuts” when it fastened together the carbon-composite fuselage of the 787. That could dramatically shorten the life of the plane, he warned, potentially causing it to break apart in mid-flight.
“I’m doing this not because I want Boeing to fail, but because I want it to succeed, and prevent crashes from happening,” Salehpour said. “The truth is, Boeing can’t keep going the way it is. It needs to do a little bit better, I think.”
Boeing disputes Salehpour’s claims, calling them “inaccurate” and saying the company is “fully confident” in the 787.
Salehpour joins a growing list of current and former Boeing employees who say the company has ignored their concerns — and then retaliated against them when they spoke up. The company denies that, but aviation experts say Boeing needs to do a better job of listening to its employees.
The latest allegations come as Boeing is struggling to rebuild trust with airlines and the public after a door plug panel blew out in midair from a 737 Max 9 in January.
That incident has already forced CEO Dave Calhoun to announce he will depart at the end of the year. And it prompted the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Brian West, to acknowledge that Boeing has made mistakes.
“For years, we prioritized the movement of the airplane through the factory over getting it done right. And that’s got to change,” West said at an investor conference last month. Boeing’s leaders also need to do a better job of listening to its workforce, he said.
Boeing 787 Dreamliner fuselages during production at the company’s manufacturing facility in North Charleston, S.C. in 2022.
Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images
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Boeing 787 Dreamliner fuselages during production at the company’s manufacturing facility in North Charleston, S.C. in 2022.
Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images
A ‘disconnect’ between Boeing’s leaders and the factory floor
In its statement about the latest allegations, Boeing said all employees are encouraged “to speak up when issues arise. Retaliation is strictly prohibited at Boeing.”
But independent experts charged with evaluating the company’s safety practices say that’s not how many Boeing employees see it.
“You cannot have a safety culture where the people that are doing the work don’t believe what they’re hearing,” said Javier de Luis, a lecturer in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
De Luis’s sister Graziella died in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in 2019. De Luis served on an expert panel convened by the Federal Aviation Administration after the crash of that Boeing 737 Max 8 jet, and another one the year before, that killed 346 people in total.
De Luis says the panel found a “disconnect” between Boeing’s management and the factory floor.
“It’s one thing to hear, ‘yes, speak up if you see anything wrong.’ And then you go and talk to the folks that are doing the work. And they say, ‘yeah, but my buddy spoke up and next thing he knew, he was being transferred out, or being given write ups for minor things,’” de Luis said.
Other whistleblowers say they faced retaliation
Former Boeing mechanic Davin Fischer says he spoke up — and paid a steep price for it.
Fischer worked for Boeing as a mechanic at the factory in Renton, Wash. where the company builds the 737 Max. He says Boeing’s leaders were constantly pushing to speed up production.
“Hey, we need to go faster, faster, faster,” Fischer said. “They cared more about shareholders and investors than they did planes, their employees, anything.”
When Fischer finally pushed back, he says he was demoted in retaliation, and then fired from the company in 2019. Fischer says many of his friends who still work at Boeing are afraid to speak out.
“People there are scared, a hundred percent,” he said. “Because they don’t want to get fired.”
There’s also the example of John Barnett, a longtime quality manager who blew the whistle on Boeing in 2019, alleging that the company was covering up serious defects with the 787 Dreamliner.
“I’m not gonna lie, it’s been rough on me. It’s been rough on my family. I’m still dealing with issues. I’m still having anxiety attacks, PTSD,” Barnett said in a 2019 interview with Ralph Nader. (Nader’s grandniece, Samya Stumo, was killed in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302).
Barnett said his managers at Boeing retaliated against him by docking his pay and creating a hostile environment, eventually forcing him into early retirement.
“It’s taken a serious mental and emotional toll on me. But you know, I want to try very hard to keep the focus on the safety of the airplane. That’s what my story is about,” Barnett said. “It keeps me up at night. I can’t sleep. It’s taken a heck of a toll on me.”
Barnett filed a complaint against Boeing for wrongful termination. On the third day of depositions in that case last month, Barnett was found dead in his truck of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police in South Carolina.
Latest whistleblower says Boeing must account for its mistakes
The latest Boeing whistleblower, engineer Sam Salehpour, alleges that he faced retaliation as well. His lawyer, Debra Katz, says Salehpour brought his concerns to managers repeatedly.
“Initially, he was just told to shut up. Then he was told he was a problem. Then he was excluded from meetings,” Katz said. “He was barred from speaking to structural engineers. He was barred from speaking to mathematicians and others to help him understand the data. And at one point, his boss threatened him with physical violence.”
Katz says Salehpour reported the threat to human resources. That’s when Boeing moved him from the 787 to a different plane. Still, Salehpour insists he’s not angry.
“Despite the treatment and retaliation I have experienced in the company, I’m not bitter,” Salehpour told reporters this week. “Boeing has to realize that implementing a real safety culture moving forward also means accounting for, admitting the mistakes and correcting the mistakes that have been made over 20 years.”
Salehpour will have another chance to share his story next week, when he’s scheduled to testify before a Senate subcommittee on Wednesday.
Boeing has been invited too, but it’s more likely that someone from the company will testify at a later date.
ICE has been trying to continue its mass deportations without drawing headlines. Our White House correspondent Zolan Kanno-Youngs explains how two fatal shootings at traffic stops raise the question of whether the Trump administration can continue its campaign without deadly consequences.
Topline
The National Weather Service is cautioning people in states as far south as South Carolina to monitor local air quality as smoke from hundreds of Canadian wildfires pours over the border and American politicians rail against the country as the fires burn out of control.
People sit near the Brooklyn Bridge as wildfire smoke from Canada causes hazy conditions on July 16, 2026 in New York.
AFP via Getty Images
Key Facts
The National Weather Service issued air quality alerts Friday due to wildfire smoke in parts of North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, Delaware, Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, Maryland and Washington D.C.
Air quality in parts of Michigan has been declared “hazardous”—the most extreme category—and Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana are experiencing “very unhealthy” levels of air pollution.
New York, including New York City, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware and Maryland are warning of “unhealthy” air and a widespread haze from the smoke, and states further south and east are warning sensitive populations may be at risk.
The smoke is spilling across borders from roughly 850 wildfires burning in Canada, many of the largest in Ontario, and more than a dozen fires in northern Minnesota.
Republican members of Congress are slamming Canada’s government for what they perceive as inaction in preventing and stopping the wildfires causing the smoke and poor air quality, with one even calling for sanctions.
Four Michigan Republicans—Reps. John James, Jack Bergman, John Moolenaar and Lisa McClain—said in a letter this week that Canada “has the tools to prevent” the smoke from pouring into the U.S. and “has chosen not to,” and Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) said in a post on X that he will table a bill next week to “sanction Canada and the responsible Canadian government officials for this atrocity.”
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“Our constituents are breathing the consequences of this failure right now, and they deserve better than to be told, again, that it will be handled,” the Michigan lawmakers said in their letter.
HOW TO STAY SAFE FROM WILDFIRE SMOKE
Those in states with extreme air quality warnings are being cautioned to limit outdoor activity and, in states with very unhealthy and hazardous warnings, to stay inside altogether with windows closed. Doctors advise anyone with heart or lung disease to stay indoors, and other groups to take precautions. For people who work outside, health officials have recommended wearing an N95 mask, which can filter at least 95% of airborne particles.
WHY IS WIDLFIRE SMOKE SO DANGEROUS?
Smoke from wildfires is made of water vapor, pollutants and particulate matter, which can penetrate the lungs and bloodstream, trigger systemic inflammation, exacerbate conditions like asthma and increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Smoke also contains a mix of harmful gases, most notably carbon monoxide. Wildfire smoke has been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular health problems, with children and teenagers, older adults, pregnant people and anyone with pre-existing heart or lung conditions at a particular risk.
SHOULD PEOPLE IN WILDFIRE SMOKE STATES WEAR A MASK?
When the Air Quality Index rises to unhealthy levels—as it has in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut on Thursday—masks are recommended for people who must spend time outside. Respirator masks worn correctly may provide some protection against fine particles in the smoke, but they do not help with hazardous gases. Staying inside is considered the safest option, but those who must go outside can mitigate some risk by wearing a mask. N95 or P100 respirators are considered the most effective.
Key background
Scientists say climate change is creating hotter, drier conditions and longer fire seasons, increasing the likelihood of large, intense wildfires across North America. NASA says human-caused warming is driving more frequent and severe wildfire conditions in many regions, and that extreme wildfire activity has more than doubled worldwide over the past two decades. Research shows fire seasons in some areas are now more than a month longer than they were 35 years ago, and those larger fires also produce more smoke, allowing hazardous air pollution to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles and affect millions of people far from the flames.
BIG NUMBER
$394 billion to $893 billion. That’s the annual cost of wildfires in the United States each year, according to the Joint Economic Committee, including direct and indirect deaths and injuries, health impacts from wildfire smoke, income loss, watershed pollution and other factors.
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A person views the Guadalupe River after flash flooding occurred along its banks on July 16, 2026 in Center Point, Texas. Flash floods swept across parts of Central Texas, prompting evacuations and triggering multiple water rescues.
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Dangerous floods are hitting South Central Texas — a region that just marked one year since more than 130 people died in catastrophic flooding. Gov. Greg Abbott says at least two people have died in the current emergency.
More than 230 rescues have been made, the governor said Thursday evening, adding that more than 2,350 responders and 1,400 vehicles have been deployed.
A wide swath of Texas is under flood alerts, from the Kerrville area south to Uvalde and beyond to Laredo. In parts of Uvalde County, muddy floodwaters covered roads and fields and rose nearly as high as houses’ rooftops, according to a video posted by Texas Department of Public Safety.
With heavy rains expected to continue into Friday, Abbott said Uvalde and Johnson City are at the greatest risk of life-threatening floods overnight.
“The people in that area need to be very cautious,” Abbott said.
In some cases, communities that endured flooding on Wednesday are being deluged once again.
“Showers and thunderstorms continue developing and moving into areas that are currently experiencing dangerous flooding conditions,” the National Weather Service office in San Antonio and Austin said.
NPR member stations in Texas are covering the floods. In some cases, residents tell reporters that flooding exceeds levels they saw in 2025.
In Kerrville, the city police department said in a noon update that while high water had mostly receded, the emergency is ongoing, with numerous road and bridge closures. The agency urged residents not to venture out.
“There is a lot of people driving around to take a look and that is not helpful,” the police said.
At least one summer camp has evacuated, according to the Texas Newsroom, and state lawmakers say they’re seeing an improved safety response to the floods, thanks to an increase in disaster resources such as funding for warning systems and flood mitigation.
The Guadalupe River rose at terrifying speed near Comfort, Texas, Thursday morning — from 5.46 feet at 5 a.m. CT to 37.05 feet at 8:05 a.m. — according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Flood sirens blared Thursday morning in the town, northwest of San Antonio that’s some 35 miles east of Camp Mystic.
“We have already had several vehicles swept away,” the Comfort Volunteer Fire Department said on social media, urging people to stay off the roads. It posted a video of fast-moving high water moving through a neighborhood.
“Even if the rain has stopped where you are, water levels are likely to continue surging throughout the day as runoff from upstream moves through our creeks and rivers,” the department said.
Gov. Greg Abbott warned that the flood will likely break records, in an area that’s historically prone to flooding.
“I want to give you a comparison: The Fourth of July floods last year had rainfall of 20.29 inches,” Abbott said, according to the Texas Newsroom. “The expected rainfall during this rainstorm is expected to be more than 30 inches.”
Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp, remains shut down after 25 campers and two counselors died last year — the result of a wall of water rushing down the Guadalupe River. They were among the more than 130 people who died across the Hill Country region.
More excessive rainfall is forecast across the Texas Hill Country Thursday, with the storm moving westward toward the Big Bend region on Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
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