Ryanair Engineers Discover Shocking Lapses in Boeing Aircraft Deliveries
Here’s something that might make frequent flyers sit up: Ryanair, Europe’s largest budget airline, has started inspecting every new Boeing aircraft by tearing up floorboards and poking into every corner—after finding spanners and other tools forgotten inside brand-new jets. Turns out, this isn’t just a one-off mistake, but a pattern that’s raising red flags across the industry.
The story broke when Ryanair’s outspoken boss, Michael O’Leary, detailed how engineers routinely discover wrenches left behind after Boeing delivers new planes. And that’s not all. Even simple but essential items—seat handles, for example—have been missing. These discoveries line up almost perfectly with what Boeing’s own whistleblower, Sam Salehpour, has been shouting about: careless production practices, shortcuts, and workers rushing jobs to meet deadlines on programs like the 787 Dreamliner.
The timing couldn’t be worse for Boeing. On June 12, there was a crash involving an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner in Ahmedabad, India, putting manufacturing quality under a harsh spotlight. Salehpour’s warnings—once buried in committee reports—are suddenly everywhere. He told a Senate panel about workers forcing misaligned fuselage parts together, and about how assembly teams tried to hush up questionable fixes just to keep the planes moving down the line.
Why Ryanair Isn’t Taking Any Chances
Ryanair isn’t just hopping on a bandwagon. They operate a staggering 600 jets, and nearly all are Boeings. When your entire business depends on planes flying safely and on time, shaky manufacturing isn’t something you can brush off. So now, every jet that comes in goes through a full 48-hour check at Ryanair’s Dublin base before it even carries a single passenger. They lift the floorboards, inspect each seat, and hunt for anything that shouldn’t be there. All this effort comes at a time when airlines are scrambling to get planes to meet surging summer demand. The reality? These delays and hiccups could leave Ryanair short on seats, and if you’re wondering whether that means pricier tickets for travelers—the answer is probably yes.
O’Leary isn’t pulling his punches. He’s hammered Boeing’s upper management for weak oversight and lack of coordination within their sprawling supply chain. The delivery delays are already giving Ryanair anxiety about missing out during their busiest months. O’Leary has at least welcomed the recent shakeup in Boeing’s executive ranks, but he’s not convinced it’s enough. He says the fixes need to start at the very basics: not just shiny new managers, but actual attention to detail on the factory floor.
Boeing, so far, hasn’t pushed back on these specific criticisms in public. But the tension isn’t hard to spot. This isn’t the first time Ryanair has clashed with Boeing over slow and error-prone deliveries. With questions about the manufacturer’s compliance with safety rules louder than ever and airlines like Ryanair now doing their own in-depth safety audits, the ball’s in Boeing’s court. People who step onto a Ryanair flight likely won’t see any of these behind-the-scenes drama—just a seat, a tray table, and a hope that every bolt and bracket is where it should be.
Between whistleblowers, highly-publicized crashes, and airlines ramping up their own inspection regimes, Boeing’s reputation has rarely been more fragile. Safety is non-negotiable in aviation, and after finding a forgotten Boeing spanner under the floorboards, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in the business willing to bet against Ryanair’s strict new inspection rules becoming the new normal.
