By Sam Boughedda
Pentagon officials are said to be examining why Boeing (NYSE:BA) employees had the ability to work on current and future Air Force One planes without the required security credentials for the highly classified jets.
The Wall Street Journal said a Pentagon official and a person familiar with the matter told them that the Defense Department and Boeing are also assessing how long many workers with access to the jets lacked specific current security credentials.
In some cases, Boeing employees' security credentials had expired months or years ago, with at least one case being around seven years ago.
The security failure reportedly involves approximately 250 employees, with an Air Force spokeswoman telling the WSJ that the military branch and Boeing are looking into a lapse in personnel tracking. In addition, they are said to be assessing why Boeing didn't submit to renew the credentials needed.
The Air Force spokeswoman said to the WSJ that Boeing notified the Pentagon about the security lapse on March 14 after they learned of the problem while "conducting a records review of their employees."
A Boeing spokeswoman said the plane maker is taking the situation very seriously and is committed to resolving it quickly.