Before booking a flight from Seattle to New York this week, Merle Meyers checked what type of airliner he would be flying on – because there are two he won’t risk boarding.
After working at Boeing for 31 years, Meyers claims to have uncovered dangerous practices on the company’s production lines – including faulty components allegedly being used on new aircraft – which left him with deep concerns about the company’s 787 Dreamliner.
Factory staff who struggled to meet deadlines were “raiding the scrap area” to use items that were “supposed to be destroyed”, he claims. “They were getting bootleg parts, bad parts with no traceability, and putting them on airplanes.”
He doesn’t trust the 737 Max either, following two crashes in 2018 and 2019 which killed a total of 346 people. So what would he do if an airline switched planes and he realised he was booked on a Max or a Dreamliner? “I wouldn’t fly,” he says. “I would decline that flight.” Other whistleblowers agree.
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