In the context of the recovery of global tourism and the surge in travel demand, two airlines, Boeing and Airbus, have also strengthened their safety regulations. As a raw material for the manufacture of key components of aircraft, the quality of titanium alloy is undoubtedly the top priority to ensure flight safety. So, after discovering that there was a problem with the titanium in their hands, Boeing and Airbus' largest parts suppliers were bound to move quickly to remove all suspicious parts from their supply chains and launch an investigation.
However, when foreign media reported, they pointed the finger at China, saying that the batch of problematic titanium metal appeared to come from a well-known Chinese supplier and had entered the supply chain in the United States. As for why the U.S. would allow substandard materials to flow in, a research institute said the company may have bypassed testing by falsifying documents. It is worth mentioning that a similar incident was reported by a British company last year, alleging that the company had imported substandard aircraft parts through forged documents.
In addition, I learned from the New York Times report that the dubious titanium metal was confirmed to have been used in parts for the Boeing 737 Max and 787 Dreamliners, as well as Airbus A220 aircraft manufactured between 2019 and 2023. Currently, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is also conducting an investigation after being notified by the Italian Aviation Cooperative Agency about the traceability of titanium.
[Boeing's manufacturing plant in Seattle]
In order to minimize the negative impact, Airbus responded by saying that it was aware of the situation and had conducted extensive testing of parts from the same source of supply, which showed that the airworthiness of the A220 aircraft was not affected. At the same time, Boeing also issued a statement saying that all parts on the aircraft are currently qualified.
However, as more and more information is revealed, there seems to be something else hidden in this matter.
According to people familiar with the matter, the source of this batch of titanium appears to date back to 2019. At that time, Turkish Aerospace Industries, a Turkish supplier, purchased a batch of titanium from a Chinese supplier. Later, the Turkish company sold the titanium to an Italian company that made parts for aircraft, and eventually after several turns, the company that supplied parts to Boeing and Airbus imported some more from Italy.
Therefore, preliminarily, although the company believes that this batch of titanium alloys comes from China, it has gone through many dealers in the middle, and in fact, it is impossible to guarantee the real source of titanium metal. After the Chinese company learned that it was involved in the incident, it also responded to the comments of the US media as soon as possible, saying that it had no idea where the titanium in the hands of the United States came from.
[The US media believes that this batch of titanium metal comes from China]
At this point, this matter seems to have been wound into a dead knot, because the global titanium supply chain is very complex, and many suppliers cooperate with each other, so it is not an easy task to investigate. Combined with the frequent negative news about Boeing some time ago, it is inevitable that people will speculate that the so-called investigation by the United States is likely to want to put the blame for frequent plane accidents on China's head. But just when I was looking for more information, something more interesting happened.
I noticed that there was an account that listed more details about the incident, and to my surprise, the owner of this account, according to his verified information, was none other than a senior official of the titanium manufacturer involved in the incident. According to him, previously they did sell a batch of titanium to Turkey, but after that, Turkey sold part of it to Italy, which in turn sold it to the United States.
At the same time, he also stressed that all the titanium alloy materials they sell have been tested by a third party and fully meet the standards, which is not at all what the United States claims to be. In addition, he also learned from an Italian businessman that Italy did buy titanium from Turkey, but because the purchase quantity was not enough, he ordered another batch from India. At the same time, the Italian businessman confirmed that the titanium bought from Turkey is intended only for his own use.
[Boeing issue whistleblower died mysteriously]
If this high-level revelation is true, it means that the substandard titanium metal detected by the United States may be the batch imported by Italy from India. And this conclusion reminds me of another thing.
Some time ago, an engineer who used to work at Boeing, Cuevas, came forward to accuse that Boeing had serious problems with quality and safety. It is worth mentioning that in order to attract enough attention from the US Aviation Administration, Cuevas has been fighting a lawsuit with Boeing for seven years. And just when he got the latest evidence and was about to continue to file an appeal, he was found dead in the parking lot of a hotel in the United States. Although the U.S. police determined that Cuevas had died by suicide, it was widely believed that it was an attempt by Boeing to cover up the scandal of its internal mismanagement.
And from this incident, we can be sure that there is a serious problem with Boeing's parts procurement, which allows a person to spend his life fighting against it. And what is involved behind this may be a huge network of interests. But now, the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States, in the absence of solid evidence, can't wait to point the finger at China, and it is difficult not to suspect that it is trying to cover up its frequent scandals. It's just that now that Italy and India are involved, does the United States dare to continue to investigate?