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CBS News has confirmed to the Federal Aviation Administration at least four Boeing potential employee whistleblower calls regarding issues related to the company's new 737 Max jetliner.
The calls began arriving a few hours after Ethiopian investigators released a preliminary report on the second accident, that of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 last month.
A source who knows them confirms that the April 5 calls were made by former and former Boeing employees, pointing to potential problems with the angle of attack sensor (AOA) and the MCAS anti-stall system that is based on on the sensor data.
Both were linked to two fatal accidents of 737Max that killed nearly 350 people and resulted in the grounding of the aircraft worldwide.
One of the claims concerns the damage caused to the wiring of an AOA sensor by a foreign body.
Boeing said he could not verify the report, but in a statement, CBS News said: "Safety and quality are absolutely at the heart of Boeing's values, and speaking out is the cornerstone of this culture of safety and security. we are looking at all the issues raised ".
A Boeing source was skeptical about this whistleblower allegation, stating that, to his knowledge, there was "no reported problem … at all" with foreign body damage to AOA sensors. or their wiring.
However, as CBS News confirmed last week, Boeing had problems with the discovery of foreign object debris (FOD) in the company's 787 Dreamliner assembled at its South Carolina facility, including metal chips discovered by the FAA in aircraft certified free of debris recently as 2017.
Twice this year, the US Air Force stopped accepting delivery of the 767-based KC-46 air tanker because FOD was found inside the new aircraft. The KC-46 is built in Everett, Washington.
Another potential call for alert launchers addressed issues related to the MCAS system shutdown switches.
All four calls were made via a special FAA-configured hotline to allow employees or the public to report problems. They are being evaluated by FAA investigators as part of ongoing investigations into the 737 Max and its certification.
If this is true, it is possible that the allegations lead to additional investigations.
Direct line submissions were first reported by CNN and confirmed to CBS News.
Earlier this month, the Senate Commerce Committee opened an investigation into the FAA certification process, citing allegations from whistleblowers of poorly trained FAA inspectors working at Max.
Investigators from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee reportedly spoke to potential launchers. The committee did not respond to a request for comments from CBS News.
It is unclear whether any of these whistleblowers overlap.
Boeing's CEO was scheduled to attend the company's annual meeting of shareholders on Monday and participate in its first media release since the crash of Ethiopian Airlines. He was supposed to answer the journalists' questions.
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