Senator Ted Cruz rips Boeing CEO over 737 Max

Dallas Morning News ^ | Oct 29, 2019 | Tom Benning

[CodeToad]

“and got certified because of their LIES.”

True, BUT, the FAA did not verify the design of the MCAS and the FAA violated the regulation about certifying the 737 Max as a 737 in the first place since the Max did not fly like a 737, which is why MCAS was designed.

I personally believe the multiple criminal investigations into this issue will find the FAA let themselves be swayed against the rules and Boeing is guilty of doing the illegal influencing.

This was not an innocent accident. It was intentional.

Boeing knew the 737 Max didn’t fly like a 737 and they knew they had changed the MCAS software after design approval. They also knew they did NOT train pilots properly to understand how the MCAS system behaved. In fact, they knowingly lied to pilots about how it behaved. It is also apparent that after the first crash Boeing suspected MCAS was the issue and they said nothing and hoped it would not happen again.

Sadly, the employees are suffering for this executive/management decision. Boeing publicly announced that no employees will receive a bonus for this year. Boeing employees get about 5%-15% of their salary from bonuses. It is also unlikely there will be bonuses next year since the financial numbers will not look favorable going into 2020.

[CodeToad]

“Blaming the pilots is ignorant and stupid”

True. Even if the pilots were not very experienced, the MCAS system was confusing and was the only factor in why the plane pitched nose down and crashed. The pilots didn’t command the plane to be nose down, MCAS did.

[fuzzylogic]

So I still believe that somebody deserves prison time. That was my original point. There’s no way that multiple people at Boeing knew about the problem and they didn’t ground the planes. To me that is criminal.

[CodeToad]

“So I still believe that somebody deserves prison time. That was my original point”

I agree. Someone deserve prison time. Rumor, and I do mean just rumor, says that higher level executives at Boeing coerced certification of the Max. If so, that is definitely deserving of prison time.

[Gay State Conservative]

See Post #22

[Zhang Fei]

[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.]

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From the beginning, we have been in complete agreement that Third World pilots are a horror show, skill-wise and that Third World maintenance regimens seem to be based on generous helpings of prayer and luck. And your very on point personal experiences certainly bear out much of what I’ve read and heard, anecdotally.

The principal difference we have is that the half-assed dipsticks in the the Third World who fly Boeing aircraft that are not the Max haven’t crashed their planes in the perfect weather conditions under which the Max crashes occurred. Third World countries are around 40% of Boeing’s civil aviation sales, and climbing fast, thanks to China and India. To keep unit costs down, it needs that market. And that’s why it needs to make the Max as idiot-proof as its other planes, so that in good weather, even a monkey could fly them. Because a monkey occasionally will, as recent events have shown.

[Hulka]

Understood.

My contribution to this thread addressed only training and skills, not technical issues.

It is worth noting, however, that US pilots experienced the same in-flight issue and had the brains and skills to handle it. It is relatively a simple thing to deal with. . .if you know what you are doing.

I am NOT a Boeing cheerleader, far from it after working with them on-and-off for nearly 10-years and seeing their mid and senior executive “leaders” as they go about their daily how-can-I-get-more executive incentive bonuses.

[Zhang Fei]

[My contribution to this thread addressed only training and skills, not technical issues.

It is worth noting, however, that US pilots experienced the same in-flight issue and had the brains and skills to handle it. It is relatively a simple thing to deal with. . .if you know what you are doing.]

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Your personal observations are eye-opening and valuable. Were there any pilots from poor countries* that punched above their weight, and performed better than you’d have expected, in a man-bites-dog fashion? And, in the other direction, were there any pilots from First World countries that really stank up the joint?

* The funny thing is that Ethiopia was supposed to be one of the better sub-Saharan (ex-South Africa, which is First World in many ways, thanks to the Afrikaans- and English-speaking whites who comprise much of its professional class) countries, civil aviation-wise. If these guys are the Major Leaguers for the region, you definitely don’t want to fly with the the bush leaguers.