Posted on 10/29/2019 4:43:56 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz ripped into embattled Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg at a high-profile Senate hearing on Tuesday, criticizing the manufacturer’s response to two deadly 737 Max plane crashes and questioning the company’s safety culture.
The Republican zeroed in on recently released internal Boeing messages that appear to show top officials raising concerns as early as 2016 about the flight-control system at fault in the crashes.
In those exchanges – described by Cruz as “stunning” – Boeing’s chief technical pilot for the 737 Max told a co-worker that the system in question was “running rampant” in simulator tests and that he “basically lied to the regulators (unknowingly).”
When Muilenburg explained that he read the messages’ content only a couple weeks ago – despite Boeing providing them to the Department of Justice in February – Cruz unloaded.
“You’re the CEO, the buck stops with you,” the senator said. “How did your team not put it in front of you, run in with their hair on fire, saying, ‘We’ve got a real problem here’? How did that not happen? What does that say about the culture at Boeing?”
Muilenburg on Tuesday opened the hearing with an apology, saying he was “deeply and truly sorry” for the fatal accidents.
“We made mistakes and got some things wrong,” said the Boeing chief, who’s enduring continued pressure over his performance and who recently lost his title as the Chicago-based manufacturer’s board chairman. “We own that, and we are fixing them.”
“Both of these accidents were entirely preventable,” said Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the panel’s chairman, lamenting a “disturbing level of casualness and flippancy” in the relationship between Boeing and federal regulators.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
“Funny that of all the 737 MAX aircraft that were being flown worldwide the only two that crashed were being operated by Third World airlines. Coincidence?”
What I see right there is the kind of attitude that caused two planes to crash and hundreds of people to die. I sure hope that you don’t work for Boeing. Because if you do then they are doomed.
I've flown more airlines than I can count.United,American,Qantas,British Airways and Cathay Pacific being just a few of the "First World" airlines I've flown.
Air Malawi,Air Tanzania,Egypt Air and Garuda are just a few of the "Third World" airlines I've flown.
I can *guarantee* you that one notices huge,huge differences...from start to finish...between Qantas and Air Tanzania...if you catch my drift.
And now a question for you:
What's the scariest airline *you've* ever flown?
Between 2013 and the end of the first quarter of this year, Boeing retired a net 200m shares, spending $43 billion. The number outstanding shares came down by 25 per cent.
One reason it could was because of savings on the company’s latest aircraft program, the now notorious 737 Max, grounded after two recent crashes killed 346 people. Instead of building a wholly new aircraft, Boeing simply bolted new fuel-efficient engines on to a modified existing airframe. That significantly reduced the airframe development costs of the project, according to company insiders. Boeing was able to redirect some of those “savings” to repurchase stock instead
The program for the 787 Dreamliner, for instance, lasted eight years and cost $32 billion.
Since the crashes of the 737 Max, Boeing’s market capitalization has dropped approx. $55 billion dollars, thus wiping out for shareholders all the gains Boeing spent on re-purchasing its own stock.
Exactly!
Excellent synopsis.
7
I thought his ‘on camera’ response a little over the top...
A phony indignity. But so are most all elected officials. We have no more
natural statesmen who are about what’s good for our country first and second...they have fallen into the ‘me first’ trap along with a lot of people.
“What does that say about the culture at Boeing?”
It says the old culture of Boeing is gone. Relative to the fact it was third world airlines that were the two crashes it simply means our pilots are better due to superior training and standards in the Americas and Europe. They had the same failures and coped with it. However, Boeing still owns the tragedies.
I will be surprised if the 737 Max survives. Customers are simply going to avoid these flights.
[If you have no skills and no air sense and blindly sit and ride and not fly you are a fool.
Harsh but true.]
Somewhere at Boeing there is a really good engineer(s) saying “I told them so but they did not listen”.
So much for the great business schools in American, still pumping out crap business leaders!
Exactly. Imagine if they had just built a wholly new pretty aircraft instead! That was in fact their original plan circa 2010 I believe— when the economy was weaker. They felt rushed by competition from Airbus plus shareholder demands...
It is also my understanding that signs of shoddier-than-normal rush manufacturing are showing up on newly built existing models and even in some military craft. Wing issues, cracks, debris, and things. The head of their South Carolina plant was forced to leave his post. 🤦♀️
It is a fact third world has issues and simply can’t fly. You want to get on Ethiopia Airlines? Not me. Western pilots have skills and judgment lacking in third world jets.
Pilot training we had two Nigerian students. On e washed out after T-37 and he went home, they pinned on his wings when he arrived and he was officially a Nigerian pilot (flew C-130’s). And these “heavy” pilots also flew as pilots of their national airlines.
The other finished T-38 training, finished the entire program, went home was pinned and flew the F-5.
During initial Check-out with Ethiopian Airlines, he was asked how thrust reverser’s worked. He had no clue and just said the enigunes started to rotate backwards. They passed him.
Mid-East and Asian “pilots” are unskilled as well.
I worked/flew in Bahrain and more than once the mid-East aircrew would argue among themselves (“turn here!” “No” “the runway is over there” “no it is not”, “not my fault!” Was said many times during a flight).
They are “trained” but simply go back to third world ways once they get home. Their mind-set is unable to retain air sense and judgment because of cultural issues. Bottom line, it is not the jet, it is the aircrew, so when something simple happens, they can’t handle it like first world pilots.
You buy my jets I will train you to the proper standard, what you do when you get home is on your head.
Third world aircrew and maintenance both are substandard once they get home. But hey, you want to trust your life to a third world aircrew, have at it.
Very appropriate.
The DO-178C process for certifying avionics software doesn’t allow self certification. The FAA must inspect all artifacts. What happened was that Boeing got two very green FAA DERs (Designated Engineering Representatives) to sign off on something they never saw. Boeing presented the design specifications and received approval to build MCAS, but then Boeing changed what they built without the DERs noticing. That was completely not how DO-178C works.
Same experience in Saudi. We had a contract to train pilots to fly the F-15. Instructors quit versus continuing to risk their lives with the low IQ nitwits. We changed how we trained them so no America had to fly with them. We did ground school instead.
Yup. . .they are dangerous when flying, driving a car.
Glad you survived.
good points
My understanding is that this has been changing recently. I live in the automotive market but this is what my colleagues in A&D have been telling me.
Regardless - internally to Boeing, I’m not buying that this went unnoticed or unreported. You’re also saying that changes were made where they knew it wasn’t appropriately reviewed by the DERs. The process wasn’t wrong but it wasn’t followed. I’m not going to blame green DERs.
I think you’re really side-stepping - while also highlighting - that there’s been inappropriate behavior, probably at more than one level, at Boeing and somebody has to take responsibility.
“I think you’re really side-stepping”
Uh, no, not side stepping at all. In fact, I was calling out Boeing and the FAA for that failure to follow the DO-178C process. For all practical purposes, the MCAS system was not certified at all.
Blaming the pilots is ignorant and stupid.
Boeing LIED to the FAA, LIED TO PILOTS, and put a plane into flight that should never have been certified... and got certified because of their LIES.
Boeing sold a model of this plane that overrode pilot based on a single sensors input. To do this, they committed FRAUD on every level... 300+ people are DEAD... even the reports on this have state, these pilots never stood a chance thanks to what Boeing did.
The only reason this didn’t happen in the US, was pure DUMB LUCK.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.