The culture at Boeing is that the managers have all the authority. Engineers have zero, none, nada. That may have changed some lately with the new executive Chief Engineer being established, but it probably won’t have any real effect.
Boeing was frantic to get the 737 Max out the door and stop competitors from taking sales. NO ONE was going to stop the 737 Max from happening, not even if a million people had to die. Boeing couldn’t have cared less about safety at that point. They were frantic to get 737 Max sales. Hindsight says that was a poor choice since other factors weighed in and getting those sales didn’t mean much.
Any engineer who spoke up about the 737 Max would have been terminated very quickly.
Sadly, there are lots of great people at Boeing. I know many of them. Solid engineers and managers. Solid and safe engineering. Unfortunately, Boeing is run by bean counters and very few aviators. They have more affirmative action hires as executives than people with solid credentials. It is how Dennis Muhlenberg got to be Chairman, CEO, and President of Boeing. He hired Affirmative Action hires as his corporate cheerleading squad.
Frankly, this is how Boeing has been for more than 70 years.
I’d said in prior threads that it’ll come out that engineers became 2nd to managers. There’s just no way that multiple levels of engineers and architects didn’t see a problem.
This was a business decision, likely withheld deliberately from the CEO - thee problem never reached his desk and it should have. Either that or he is lying.
Somebody should be going to prison.