- Workers at a now-closed Takata plant in La Grange, Ga., manipulated tests meant to measure whether inflaters were airtight, said the former engineer, who still works in the automotive industry and spoke on the condition of anonymity. His testimony in the lawsuit has not yet been made public.
The tests involved inserting a small amount of helium gas into the inflaters. The inflaters were then put in a vacuum. If too much helium was detected outside the inflater, that meant the inflater had a leak, was defective and should be scrapped.
But workers at the La Grange factory would take the defective inflaters and test them repeatedly, to deplete the helium. With no helium left inside, the inflaters would pass the test, according to the engineer. The workers would then give the defective inflaters new bar code identifiers, so the repeated testing could not be tracked.
The engineer said he questioned his Takata bosses in 2001 about manipulating the tests, but was told “not to come back to any more meetings.” He left the company later that year.
And then there is this poor woman who was blown apart in (with?) her own home by Takata airbag inflaters: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1140NJ For a couple of bucks.
That's appalling. "These things that explode with way too much force because they get unstable? Let's put all of them together on a fucking flatbed." We're part of that recall. We've still been driving the car because we haven't wanted to deal with a rental but I think I just changed my mind. Holy shit. Edit: jesus fucking christ