- [Man] Boeing's popular 787 Dreamliner
is facing a new manufacturing defect,
which might sound familiar.
- This is another blow for Boeing.
- [Man] The defect could take three weeks to address,
which means airlines won't be receiving Dreamliners
in time for much of the busy summer travel season.
- [Man] Recent issues with the plane makers
wide body aircraft stretched back to last summer.
Since then, the defects have prompted regulatory review,
a halting of deliveries,
a pile up of more than a hundred planes
and are now pressuring Boeing's bottom line.
- This is not a situation Boeing wants to be in
at this point.
Right now it can't deliver
its most popular wide body aircraft.
It's almost as if the company like Apple
couldn't deliver laptops.
- [Man] So what are the issues with the Dreamliner
and how did Boeing get here?
First, a bit of background, the 787 Dreamliner
made its commercial debut in 2011.
- Costs all sorts of possibilities for new routes,
new efficiencies for airlines,
a better passenger experience
and then it wounded up on the ground.
- [Man] In early 2013, a fire broke out
aboard an empty Dreamliner in Boston,
sparked by battery problems that later surfaced
on another Dreamliner in Japan.
- In two weeks time, we saw two cases of battery failures
on the 787 and the grounding of the entire fleet
by the FAA.
- So the Dreamliner had to emerge from that experience
and regain the confidence of airlines
and the traveling public.
- [Man] The 787 Is now one of Boeing's
most popular aircraft, more than 60 airlines,
including American and United,
have added 787s to their fleet.
The Dreamliner is unique, as it was Boeing's first plane
designed largely by other companies.
Its primary structure is made mostly
from composite materials for efficiency.
- Because the Dreamliners structure is new in the world
of aircraft manufacturing,
Boeing and the FAA are learning how it's composite materials
and where those materials join age over time.
- [Man] So fast forward, nearly a decade of flights later,
to August of last year,
when Boeing voluntarily grounded eight Dreamliners
found with two different production defects
in the same location.
- For an aircraft manufacturer to do that on its own
is something that you really don't see that often.
- [Man] The defects were outlined in an August 31st
internal federal aviation administration memo,
which was reviewed and then reported on
by the Wall Street Journal.
- We first reported about the Dreamliner issues
in September, when the FAA launched a high level review
of Boeing's Dreamliner manufacturing processes.
At that time, Boeing and the FAA were trying
to get their heads around the problem and they focused on
one general area of the aircraft.
- [Man] Specifically, the FAA memo says they were looking
at nonconforming sections of the rear fuselage
or body of the plane that fell short
of its own engineering standards.
The first defect had to do with how Boeing used shims
or the material that fills the gaps between sections
of the fuselage.
The second stemmed from variations
in the smoothness of the fuselage skin.
- While the two types of defects, independent of each other,
didn't pose an immediate safety risk,
together in the same section,
are deemed to potentially introduce a risk
of a structural integrity problem in extreme circumstances.
- [Man] Then the following day,
Boeing flagged a third issue,
this one with sections of the Dreamliners tail
that were clamped together improperly during assembly.
- It's not a question of immediate structural integrity.
It's a question of whether or not they introduced
premature aging and if so,
what does that mean for the Dreamliners in service
and how often they need to be serviced and fixed?
- [Man] In a recent internal video Boeing explained
how thin these gaps are.
- If you started at the tail of the airplane,
just walking to the front, each of those sections,
when we bring them together,
is within five thousandths of an inch.
You'll hear people talk of gaps.
It's really not what you would normally think of as a gap.
- [Man] The next month, in October,
Boeing halted delivery of the Dreamliners.
- Halting deliveries is a big deal
and in fact that means Boeing can't sell the products.
- [Man] Customers largely pay Boeing on delivery.
Prior to the halt, many of Boeing's commercial
deliveries were Dreamliners,
as the 737 Max remained grounded following two fatal crashes
of that aircraft.
- Boeing was at that point, a month away from getting
the FAA's okay to again, fly passengers on 737 Max
and suddenly it couldn't get its other popular aircraft,
the Dreamliner, off the lot either.
- [Man] Then with delivery still halted,
The plane maker expanded its inspections
of the Dreamliner in December, after it found instances
of the smoothness issue on new sections of the plane.
- At that point, it became clear that the problem
wasn't going away as quickly as we might've thought earlier.
- [Man] In mid-March, the FAA took back Boeing's authority
to inspect and sign off
on several Dreamliners awaiting delivery,
saying it would conduct the checks instead.
- It had echoes of what happened after the 737 Max crashes.
This action by the FAA was a sign of
its increasing scrutiny when it came to overseeing
the manufacturing process of the Dreamliner.
- [Man] But later that month,
Boeing resumed Dreamliner deliveries,
taking what looked like the first step
toward moving past these issues.
In April, the company's CEO, David Calhoun,
told investors the 787 delivery pause was an example
of the company trying to solve its manufacturing issues.
- We've taking actions over this, really hard actions,
over the course of this year to stop things
when we see an issue and get 'em fixed once and for all.
- [Man] Then, in late May, deliveries were halted again,
as the FAA requested more information from Boeing
about its proposed solution for catching and addressing
the defects before handing over the planes to customers.
- Boeing was hoping that it could get FAA approval
for the methodology to inspect,
using a mix of physical inspections and analysis.
- [Man] With those discussions ongoing,
Boeing found the latest defect around early July.
This time on part of the aircraft
known as the forward pressure bulkhead
at the front of the plane.
- So it's going to complicate the process that was underway
of going, trying to prove to the FAA
that its methodology was sound.
- [Man] It's still unclear when the latest issue
will be resolved, though Boeing said it could take
at least three weeks to address.
- [Stan] What we're doing on the 787
is a methodical program,
reviewing the airplane from tip to tail,
in a way that's safe and compliant for our customers
and our regulators.
- [Man] Meanwhile, finished Dreamliners are piling up.
More than a hundred planes await delivery.
Boeing has slowed production on the plane
and said it now expects to deliver less than half
of its 787 inventory this year.
- [Man] The slowdown is likely to ripple
into Boeing's vast supply network
and for some weeks and months,
it's going to mean that Boeing's airline customers
have to wait longer to get their new Dreamliners.
- [Man] It's unclear whether these manufacturing issues
will matter in the long run.
- Whether or not there is any long-term impacts,
good or bad, to Boeing's reputation remains to be seen.
For now, the Dreamliner is still a very popular aircraft
and has an excellent safety record.
(calm music)