Texas AG Ken Paxton (left inset) (via AP Photo/Eric Gay), a Boeing 737 MAX takes flight (Thomas Arnoux/Abaca/Sipa USA via AP Images)
Following a string of Boeing plane incidents in recent months and the death of a whistleblower, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is investigating the airline giant’s supplier, including whether that company’s “diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’) commitments” are illegal or “compromising” its “manufacturing processes.”
The Texas attorney general’s consumer protection division issued a request Thursday to examine documents of Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc., which Paxton’s office said was a first step in evaluating whether the “entity has been or is engaged in acts or conduct that violate its governing documents or any laws of this state.”
Paxton, who previously survived impeachment proceedings and just days ago ushered in the end of years-old felony securities fraud charges by agreeing to take legal ethics classes, is now making broad document demands of Spirit AeroSystems as part of a probe to find out why “certain models” of the Boeing 737 had “manufacturing defects [that] have led to numerous concerning or dangerous incidents, some of which occurred in-air.”
For instance, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) earlier in March declared that the agency “identified non-compliance issues in Boeing’s manufacturing process control, parts handling and storage, and product control” following an investigation into the Alaska Airlines “door plug blowout” incident of Jan. 5.
The mid-air incident prompted horrified passengers to sue Boeing for a billion dollars and prompted the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation.
Paxton’s office apparently theorizes, in a way reminiscent of the response to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, that the diversity initiatives of Boeing’s fuselage supplier may explain the “manufacturing defects” at issue.
He demands that Spirit AeroSystems produce documents by April 17 that show that company’s internal communications with investors and Boeing, as well as any reports on a “Mis-Drilled Aft Pressure Bulkhead Holes Defect.” Paxton further demands documents “sufficient to identify all corrective measures taken by Spirit to address or rectify the issues that led to Spirit being placed on probation by Boeing in or around 2018” and “all meeting minutes of Spirit’s Global Diversity & Inclusion Council(s).”
A series of document requests specifically focused on the “race, national origin, sexual orientation, and age” of SpiritAeroSystems employees before and after the company’s “DEI Policy was enacted”:
8. Produce any Documents that Spirit relies on to substantiate its claim that a diverse workplace improves product quality and/or “enhance[s] performance” and/or “helps [Spirit] . . . make better decisions.”
9. Produce Documents sufficient to identify Spirit’s employee demographics for race, national origin, sexual orientation, and age before Your DEI Policy was enacted.
10. Produce Documents sufficient to identify Spirit’s employee demographics for race, national origin, sexual orientation, and age as of January 1, 2024.
11. Produce Documents sufficient to identify the demographic characteristics for all personnel affected by layoffs by You in 2020. This includes, but is not limited to, the “workforce reductions of 2,800 employees in Wichita, Kansas and 400 employees in Oklahoma” referred to at: https://www.spiritaero.com/pages/release/spirit-aerosystems-actions-in-response-to-covid-19/.
Read AG Paxton’s letter here.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
