Written by Francesca Landini
MILAN (Reuters) – Italian prosecutors on Saturday charged seven people and two subcontractors with crimes including fraud and violating aircraft safety rules after an investigation into suspected defective parts produced by an Italian company for Boeing (NYSE:).
Prosecutors began their investigation in late 2021 after Boeing said some parts of its 787 Dreamliner supplied by a company working for Italian aerospace group Leonardo were improperly manufactured.
Investigators found that two Italian subcontractors used cheaper, incompatible forms of titanium and aluminum to manufacture certain parts, saving significant amounts of money in raw material costs, prosecutors said in a statement, without naming the subcontractors or the company. Seven people.
“This led to the manufacture of aircraft parts with much lower anti-static and anti-stress properties, with implications for aviation safety,” prosecutors in the southern city of Brindisi said.
Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that former Leonardo supplier Manufacturing Specifications (MPS) and now-bankrupt former company Processi Speciali were the two companies at the center of the investigation.
MPS owner Antonio Ingrosso and his father Vincenzo, who headed Processi Speciali, were two of the seven people involved in the investigation.
Their lawyer told Reuters that the two men were “convinced that they acted with full respect for the law.”
The seven people and their subcontractors will now be given time to present any new evidence in their defence, before prosecutors decide whether to ask a judge to call a trial.
Aerospace experts working with prosecutors certified at least 4,829 noncompliant components made of titanium and 1,158 components made of aluminum, prosecutors said.
They added, “The work of experts and investigations concluded that some non-compliant structural components could cause, in the long term, damage to the safety of the aircraft, requiring the American company to initiate an exceptional maintenance campaign for the aircraft in question.” Boeing and Leonardo were victims of the alleged crimes and cooperated with the investigation.
Leonardo and Boeing declined to comment.