Former Boeing Engineer Questions Safety of 787 Dreamliner

Boeing’s highly touted new 787 Dreamliner isn’t scheduled to carry its first commercial passenger until next year, but it’s already facing tough criticism. A former Boeing engineer who was fired “under disputed circumstances,” according to the Seattle Times, says the 787 Dreamliner’s innovative carbon-fiber composite body may make it unsafe because it “will shatter too easily and burn with toxic fumes” during a crash. Vince Weldon, a 46-year-veteran of Boeing, according to the Times, will air his views tonight on Dan Rather Reports, an HDNet program.

From the Times story, which is currently the most e-mailed piece on the paper’s Web site:

Rather said his show doesn’t determine whether Boeing or Weldon is right. But referring to the e-mails from Weldon’s peers, he said, “There are others who are still within the company who are concerned ... that Boeing could be destroyed by taking the 787 to market too soon and brushing aside these safety concerns too cavalierly.”

Boeing, according to the Times story, denies the assertions about the much-anticipated jet, “saying the questions he raised internally were addressed to the satisfaction of its technical experts.”

Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Mike Fergus said that the Dreamliner won’t be certified for flight unless it meets a “specific requirement that Boeing prove passengers will have at least as good a chance of surviving a crash landing as they would in current metal airliners.”

Dan Rather Reports may post its piece online once it has aired. The Web site currently features only a hard-to-read transcript.

Related on World Hum:
* Boeing Unveils 787 Dreamliner

Photo by The Boeing Company.

©2026 World Hum, All Rights Reserved