Dreamliner's skin in the news

The second-ever post on this blog was about a conversation I had with a Boeing person who was worried about what happens to 787's carbon fiber in a crash (Cough, 3/18). Now the subject hits the Seattle Times business section:

Fired engineer calls 787's plastic fuselage unsafe

A former senior aerospace engineer at Boeing's Phantom Works research unit, fired last year under disputed circumstances, is going public with concerns that the new 787 Dreamliner is unsafe.

Forty-six-year veteran Vince Weldon contends that in a crash landing that would be survivable in a metal airplane, the new jet's innovative composite plastic materials will shatter too easily and burn with toxic fumes. More