I don't care if it was Al Jazeera or Pinoccio that were reporting this.
If I see an on camera deposition of the FAA's Chief Safety and Technical Advisor, who has just lodged a sworn affidavit drafted by Boeing's legal council, stating that he has not seen sufficient data or information to determine that there was an unsafe condition, the alarm bells start screaming.
If I then hear and see the same FAA guy admitting on camera that he has never accessed the FAA's own Service Difficulties Reporting Database (or ordered somebody else to do so), it is difficult for me to see anything other than a cover-up.
Make up your own mind and watch the relevant section beginning at 43:40 of the linked video.
On a wing and a prayer - PEOPLE AND POWER - Al Jazeera English
I have no problem with individuals forming their own opinion about this. That is the nature of reading and viewing available information such as this video.
However, the video has a purpose which is to attract viewers and as such solicits and edits opinions to serve this purpose. OTOH, discussion of available facts in forums like this may bring out different opinions among experts.
I found so many inaccuracies and streches in the video that I lost faith in it as a source of unbiased facts and conclusions.
The evidence presented does not support a claim of an unsafe aircraft.
The so called SDR (service difficulty reports) are woefully inadequate to assess the nature, causes and effects of a problem. The most that I could ever decipher from reading these kind of reports is that they are more like "snags" indicating numerous "minor" discrepencies requiring follow up (repair etc.) up by the airline. In order to assess a safety problem against the regulations one needs to scan those very few reports in the required reporting data base to the FAA under "Continued Airworthiness" agreements.
We have already disputed as irrelevant the reports of fuselage breakups in a crash landing. As far as I can see no data has been presented about cracks in the fuselage requiring repairs emanating from a direct cause of this problem (corrosion is common)