Two safety inspectors have been charged with wire fraud for allegedly fabricating hundreds of required safety tests on welded natural gas pipelines installed across New York City and Westchester County. Rather than conducting individual radiographic inspections—vital for verifying weld integrity—they reportedly reused the same X-ray on multiple welds, marking them as inspected when they were not, a tactic known in the field as “radaring.”
These fraudulent actions went undetected between 2016 and 2023, during which the inspectors submitted falsified paperwork to the utility—widely believed to be Con Edison—and were compensated for work never performed. This breach of trust places potential weld defects in the pipeline network at risk of going unnoticed, with clear safety ramifications.
The indictment underscores the importance of adhering to proper non-destructive testing protocols in welding—a discipline where safety margins are non-negotiable. Weld inspections, particularly radiographic testing, are a bedrock of pipeline integrity. The alleged failures in this case not only compromise system safety but raise questions about oversight and quality checks in outsourced inspection processes.
Source:
, The Journal News
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