On a Wing and a Prayer begins:

For more than a year, Al Jazeera has been investigating allegations”€”made in U.S. Federal Court proceedings”€”that between 1996 and 2004 ill-fitting, illegal, and dangerous parts were assembled onto many of the most commonly used passenger planes in the world today.

The investigation originated with complaints from Wichita employees who could not make the Ducommun parts fit. The parts were essential aircraft body components, not armrests or floor carpets.

Boeing had appointed Gigi Prewitt, who was the third generation of her family to work for a company she loved, to oversee parts purchasing for the 737NG. Shop personnel, proud of their work and unwilling to cause anyone’s death, told her something was wrong. Since the parts didn”€™t fit properly, they caused stress to the fuselage assembly.

Gigi Prewitt and another staffer, Taylor Smith, entrusted the problem to Boeing management. Senior Boeing officials sent a memorandum to top management in August 2000 that warned:

The severity of these conditions is documented via photographs and poses a quality risk to the production of quality airplane parts….Misrepresentation of the manufacturing process jeopardizes the integrity of airplane parts…this situation cannot be ignored….

The situation was ignored. The whistle-blowers lost their jobs. The FAA, that federal agency ostensibly responsible for your safety this Christmas, apparently did nothing beyond checking the Ducommun website.

I didn”€™t report this story, so I cannot accuse anyone at Boeing of taking kickbacks from Ducommun or anyone at the FAA of accepting bribes from Boeing. I will say that the FAA seemed to be as diligent with Boeing as the SEC was with Bernie Madoff.

If the 737NG’s faults were suspected to be Al-Qaeda saboteurs”€™ handiwork, you can bet your airfare that the FBI, CIA, FAA, federal marshals, and the rest of the security apparatus would be fighting like hell to make the collar. The culprits would spend the rest of their lives in prison or worse. Yet Boeing and Ducommun’s executives are not even under investigation except by Mother Jones and Al Jazeera.

The film added that the plane has already come apart in accidents involving death and injury, but the company insists the breakups were unrelated to the Ducommun parts. Happy flying.