Boeing's largest supplier regularly provided fuselages with 'serious defects': Whistleblower

In the Boeing door blowout case, whistleblowerand Spirit AeroSystems' former employee Santiago Paredes claimed that the fuselages produced by the largest supplier of top aircraft makers regularly had serious defects.

Paredes, who was a former quality inspector, speaking to the BBC said that he found nearly 200 defects in parts which were being prepared to be shipped to Boeing.

He said that he was given the nickname "showstopper" for slowing down production when he raised his concerns.

Paredes claimed that some of the defects he found while working at Spirit were minor, however, others were more serious.

He added that he faced pressure because he raised issues and was asked to be less rigorous. "They always made a fuss about why I was finding it, why I was looking at it. I was finding a lot of missing fasteners, a lot of bent parts, sometimes even missing parts," the whistleblower said.

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"They just wanted the product shipped out. They weren't focused on the consequences of shipping bad fuselages. They were just focused on meeting the quotas, meeting the schedule, meeting the budget… If the numbers looked good, the state of the fuselages didn'treallymatter," Paredesalleged.

Meanwhile, speaking to CBS News about finding defects, Paredes said, "If quality mattered, I would still be at Spirit. It was very rare for us to look at a job and not find any defects."

"Why'd that happen? Because Spirit let go of a defect that they overlooked because of the pressure that they put on the inspectors. If the culture was good, those issues would be addressed, but the culture is not good," he added.

Spirit strongly disagrees with the whistleblower's allegations

Spirit, reacting to the whistleblower'sallegations, said that it "strongly disagree[d]" with them.

"We are vigorously defending against his claims," said a Spiritspokesperson.

Spirit spokesman Joe Buccino added, "We encourage all Spirit employees with concerns to come forward, safe in knowing they will be protected. We remain committed to addressing concerns and continuously improving workplace safety standards."

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Spirit AeroSystems and Boeing came under scrutiny aftera door fuselage blew out from the brand new 737 Max mid-air just after take-off in January and created a gaping hole in the aircraft.

As per the investigators, the door was originally fitted by Spirit, however, Boeing technicians had removedit to rectify faulty riveting.

After the incident, US regulator Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched an audit of production practices at the two firms.

(With inputs from agencies)