Italian prosecutors charged seven individuals and two subcontractors with fraud and flight safety violations, following an investigation into alleged defective parts manufactured by an Italian company for Boeing.
Boeing said in 2012 that some parts for its 787 Dreamliner aircraft supplied by a company working for Italian aerospace group Leonardo were improperly manufactured.
The investigation began in late 2021. Investigators found that two Italian subcontractors, whose names were not disclosed, used cheaper and substandard types of titanium and aluminium to make certain parts. As a result, this allowed them to save significant amounts of money on raw material costs.
The prosecutors in the southern city of Brindisi said that “this resulted in the realisation of airplane parts with significantly lower static and stress resistance characteristics, with repercussions on aviation safety.”
Aerospace industry experts working with prosecutors certified at least 4,829 non-compliant titanium components and 1,158 aluminium components.
“The expert work and investigations concluded that some non-compliant structural components could, in the long run, create harm to the safety of the aircraft, requiring the U.S. company to initiate an extraordinary maintenance campaign of the aircraft involved,” they said, adding Boeing and Leonardo were victims of the alleged crimes and had cooperated with the probe.
