Boeing has denied claims that work on the production line of the 737 Max was not adequately funded.
The aircraft is currently grounded after two crashes which killed 346 people.
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The US manufacturer said it is committed to making the 737 Max one of the safest aircraft ever to fly.
Adam Dickson worked at Boeing for 30 years and led a team of engineers who worked on the 737 Max.
He claimed they were under constant pressure to keep costs down.
“Certainly what I saw was a lack of sufficient resources to do the job in its entirety,” he told the programme.
“The culture was very cost centred, incredibly pressurised. Engineers were given targets to get certain amount of cost out of the aeroplane.”
Dickson alleged that engineers were under pressure to downplay new features on the 737 Max.
He said by classifying them as minor rather than major changes, Boeing would face less scrutiny from the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration.
“The goal was to show that those differences were so similar to the previous design that it would not require a major design classification in the certification process. There was a lot of interest and pressure on the certification and analysis engineers in particular, to look at any changes to the Max as minor changes,” Dickson reportedly said.
Boeing described its former engineer’s comments as incorrect.
“We did not cut corners or push the 737 Max out before it was ready,” the company said.
“We have always held true to our values of safety, quality and integrity and those values are complementary and mutually reinforcing with productivity and company performance.”
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