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INSIGHT-How faulty parts at Boeing's 787 jets flew below the radar in Italy
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INSIGHT-How faulty parts at Boeing's 787 jets flew below the radar in Italy
Mar 12, 2025 11:20 PM

*

Italian sub-contractor supplied faulty parts for Boeing ( BA )

jets in

2017-20 via Leonardo - prosecutors

*

Supplier passed repeated audits while allegedly using

low-grade

metals - court documents

*

Alleged scam uncovered thanks to chance police find,

sources say

*

Industry experts call for random checks on aviation

components

By Francesca Landini and Tim Hepher

BRINDISI, Italy, March 13 (Reuters) - On a Saturday

morning in May, 2020, Italian police officers caught two men

pouring chemical waste into the sewers in the southern port city

of Brindisi, near a small plane components factory.

Five years on, that routine pollution case has spiralled

into a wide-ranging judicial investigation into how thousands of

flawed titanium and aluminium parts manufactured in Italy ended

up in nearly 500 Boeing 787 jets still in use.

The probe, due to be discussed at a preliminary hearing in

Italy on Thursday, focuses on how tiny aero-part-maker

Manufacturing Process Specification (MPS) allegedly defrauded

clients by using cheaper and weaker metals to make floor

fittings and other plane parts. Company executives deny the

charge.

Boeing ( BA ) has repeatedly said that there is no immediate

safety risk. U.S. regulators, meanwhile, are preparing technical

guidance for airlines to detect and replace any bad parts,

without opting for the emergency orders reserved for the most

pressing cases.

But the precarious chain of events that led detectives to

the alleged scam, including the surprise pollution find, raises

broader questions about the failure by the aerospace industry's

own voluntary audit system to detect sub-standard components.

Detectives were already investigating MPS' owners over the

bankruptcy of their previous firm. But after catching two MPS

workers dumping polluting liquids next to the factory, police

broadened their enquiries to the Brindisi firm's raw material

purchases, three investigative sources said.

With the help of whistleblowers, police found that MPS and

its predecessor company had bought very small quantities of the

prescribed metals required for 787 jets, including a tough

titanium alloy, switching instead to cheaper and less resilient

pure titanium, they said.

Prosecutors allege that for four years parts made with the

wrong type of metal flowed into the aerospace supply chain via

Italian group Leonardo, which builds two fuselage

sections for the Boeing 787 at its nearby Grottaglie plant.

The case comes as Boeing ( BA ) tries to move beyond a separate

safety and quality crisis that triggered financial and

management upheaval and layoffs. The rest of the industry is

also grappling with sporadic issues with rogue parts.

Despite using low-quality metals, the now defunct MPS passed

audits by three different certification bodies or private

auditors between 2017 and 2021, according to a Reuters review.

None of these audits involved a physical check of the floor

fittings, which are structural components of a jet, the news

agency found.

While news of the alleged metal switch at Boeing's ( BA ) Italian

subcontractor made international headlines in October 2021,

details of MPS' auditing process, as well as the number of weak

floor fittings installed, have not been previously reported.

For its review, Reuters consulted confidential Italian

police and prosecutors' documents, judicial seizure decrees,

copies of records from an aerospace supplier database and spoke

to four people with direct knowledge of the investigation.

Half a dozen investigators, lawyers and certification

experts told Reuters the case raises doubts about whether

controls, including third-party audits, are robust enough to

ensure below-grade parts do not end up in commercial jets.

"It is extremely worrying that there were no preventive

checks on the type of material used to build these parts," said

Danilo Recine, vice-president of Italy's ANPAC pilot union.

INSPECTIONS

The FAA has not grounded any 787 planes but issued a draft

notice last year that, when finalised, will require airlines to

inspect jets for flawed parts and replace them.

Its proposed notice potentially covers almost 500 jets but

until the inspections are carried out it is impossible to know

how many parts are on which jets, it said in the May 2024 draft.

The FAA declined to elaborate. It noted only that a period

for collecting comments from airlines had ended.

Contacted by Reuters, Leonardo said in a statement that

prosecutors are treating it as a victim in the case.

Boeing ( BA ), which has also been granted the status of victim,

declined comment on specifics of the case but said it had a

"comprehensive quality management system," which includes audits

of suppliers.

"This complements additional audits by certification bodies,

suppliers and others within the industry" it added.

MPS, and its predecessor Processi Speciali, used to make

several plane parts for Leonardo, including the fittings

connecting the beams supporting the Boeing 787 cabin floor to

the fuselage. It also supplied other aerospace firms.

After performing material inspections on the components,

investigators allege MPS manufactured 539 below-grade floors for

Boeing ( BA ) that were supplied via Leonardo, according to a

confidential document prepared by prosecutors.

The faulty floor fittings ended up in as many as 477 jets

still in service, the document said, a handful more than the

potential population of affected jets cited by the FAA.

In the event of an emergency landing, the lower-quality

floor fittings could lead to a collapse of the jet's floor,

aerospace experts who tested the parts on behalf of prosecutors

said in the document.

The FAA has raised a similar worst-case scenario, adding it

would need multiple adjacent parts to fail simultaneously.

In their final report, Italian prosecutors accuse MPS' head

of quality, the company's owner and three relatives of fraud and

breach of airplane safety rules. Two other workers are accused

of polluting soil and water.

"(They) have put flight security in danger by producing and

delivering to Leonardo ... structural aerospace parts made, not

with contracted titanium alloy, but pure titanium - which has

structural strength that is largely lower to that of the

prescribed alloy," the report says.

In total, prosecutors have said MPS or its predecessor

supplied around 6,000 parts using the wrong kind of metal,

although the vast majority are not structural components.

Francesca Conte, a lawyer for MPS' owner, said the supplier

had worked in partnership with Leonardo and obtained all

necessary certifications. "If there were any anomalies, they

would have been immediately evident".

Conte and the lawyers for the other defendants said there

was evidence to be presented during the trial that would prove

their clients were not responsible for the alleged crimes.

WEAK CHECKS

To become a Boeing ( BA ) or Airbus supplier, parts makers

must be audited for their quality management systems under an

aerospace chapter of the ISO global standards organisation.

Those involved in certain special processes like welding or

electro-plating also need a U.S.-based approval called NADCAP.

Industry records reviewed by Reuters show that MPS and its

predecessor won approvals from three auditing bodies under the

ISO-based aerospace standard for quality systems. The last

certification was awarded in May 2021.

Leonardo said in an emailed statement it had learnt about

issues with MPS components at the end of 2020 from Boeing ( BA ).

Asked how it vetted contractors, Leonardo said that MPS

first had to qualify to enter its and Boeing's ( BA ) suppliers' lists.

The group said that it had also carried out subsequent checks of

MPS using "documents made available by the supplier."

The audits were conducted both independently and in joint

teams with Boeing ( BA ), the Italian company added.

"Any fraudulent behaviour cannot be detected by these

checks," Leonardo said.

However, since last year, the company has begun doing extra

tests on chemical and physical characteristics of "significant

components", it added.

The lack of spot physical checks baffled police, according

to a source in the investigation.

"The problem of faulty parts was found out in 2020," the

source said. "If quality controls had worked, then it would not

have been discovered so late."

"NEED FOR A REGULATORY FRAMEWORK"

Under the voluntary oversight system for quality management,

private auditors known as certification bodies check whether an

aerospace firm has the right processes, machines and skilled

workers to carry out its tasks to the correct standards.

Random physical tests are typically only included if a

company needs a quality certificate for specific products.

But Christopher Paris, founder of consultancy Oxebridge

Quality Resources, said the MPS case demonstrated the need for

tougher oversight of the pyramid of controls, including not only

the independent auditors but accreditation bodies that vet them.

"There is a need for a regulatory framework," he said.

None of the auditors or various industry bodies is targeted

by the Italian investigation.

ACCREDIA, which is responsible for accrediting auditors in

Italy, said existing rules were "robust and well-structured" and

stressed that the job of the audits is not to root out crime.

Sitting at the top of the system of voluntary controls is

the Industry Aerospace Quality Group, a global body.

IAQG President Eric Jefferies said in a statement to Reuters

that it is actively working on updates to existing standards.

"However, the outcomes of any quality management system

implementation ultimately rest with the certified organization,"

he said.

(Reporting by Francesca Landini and Tim Hepher; Additional

reporting by Giulia Segreti; Editing by Lisa Jucca)

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