A former Boeing employee who worked at the Renton factory has come forward alleging that he was targeted for speaking up about not following procedures and was eventually terminated.
Davin Fischer spoke exclusively with KIRO 7 about his experience working at the Renton site.
Fischer said he worked as a mechanic on 737′s installing seats. He was fired from the company in 2019.
“Before I got fired, there was a push to get as many planes done as possible and out the door,” Fischer said. “My management wanted us to install seats in a wrong manner, that would cause damage to the plane.”
Fischer told KIRO 7 that he spoke up and brought concerns up to his manager that the seats were not bolted down correctly.
“It causes gouges in the seat rail and that’s considered structural and then at that point the whole interior has to come out and they have to be replaced,” he said. Fischer said when he spoke up about the issues, that’s when trouble began.
He continued, “I refused to do it and then later that night I was actually moved to another area because I refused to do it.”
Fischer said he was moved to another team after he spoke up, and as for the plane, “It got pushed out the door as they wanted.”
Fischer said he submitted a complaint with Boeing and gave KIRO 7 photos detailing the incident. The submission said a third-level manager was called. He told KIRO 7 that nothing came of it.
“I contacted ethics, HR, they didn’t care,” he said.
About four months after this incident, Fischer said he was fired from Boeing for misuse of company time. He told KIRO 7 that there technically were grounds for his firing.
“I was targeted, they had other employees following me around and would call or tell the manager if I was within a minute early or late to a lunch, a break, or anything regardless of if there’s 30-40 other people around me doing the same thing,” he said.
Fischer told KIRO 7 that coming forward years later felt like the right thing to do and that he doesn’t have any ill-will toward the company.
“I don’t,” he said. “There’s like over 200 years of Boeing in my family so I have no ill will I guess towards Boeing.”
Fischer said he has multiple family members who have worked for the company collectively adding up to years with the airline manufacturer.
“Everybody is so afraid to speak up at Boeing like working there if you speak up you’re afraid that you’re going to lose your job, they’re going to retaliate against you,” he said.
Fischer told KIRO 7 that he wasn’t surprised when he learned about the door plug that came off midflight back in January on Alaska Airlines flight 1282.
“It really sucks when stuff happens and you’re like 30,000 feet in the air, you can’t just pull over and fix it,” he said.
When asked if he would board a 737, he said, “I’d rather not right now.”
He also said he wouldn’t recommend it to loved ones.
“I’d tell them hey you should probably switch if you could get a different plane.”
KIRO 7 reached out to Boeing about these allegations and they sent a statement saying:
Boeing employs more than 66,000 employees in Washington state. KIRO-TV contacted us last night with general details that have been insufficient to accurately check, verify and address these allegations from 5 years ago. Boeing takes very seriously any allegation of work that does not conform to our engineering or quality standards. We continuously encourage employees to report concerns as our priority is to ensure the safety of our airplanes and the flying public. We carefully review and respond to all reports submitted to our online reporting system – and will continue to do so. Additionally, Boeing has zero tolerance for retaliation.