Boeing is now facing a major setback with fuselage issues, halting the construction of the Charleston-built mega-planes.
The company recently encountered a new quality control issue involving the fuselages of its jets. This setback comes shortly after Air Canada announced one of the largest commercial orders in American aviation history, purchasing 18 Boeing 787-10 jets from Boeing Co.’s North Charleston plant. The order, valued at over $6 billion, underscores the significance of the Charleston facility in Boeing’s operations.
“While this potential condition is not an immediate safety issue and planes can continue operating safely, we currently believe we will have to perform rework on undelivered planes,” Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal said in the letter to employees shared with CBS News.
The issue was identified when a worker at Spirit AeroSystems, the Wichita, Kansas-based supplier responsible for a significant portion fuselages, noticed mis-drilled holes. The discovery of these specification deviations highlights ongoing challenges in Boeing’s production quality control.
This latest hiccup adds to a series of quality concerns for the aerospace giant, potentially affecting its delivery timelines and financial performance. Boeing and its suppliers are now tasked with addressing these fuselage issues promptly to minimize impacts on its operations and commitments to customers like Air Canada.
