Valid points and I had read that article.
However, Boeing is a private company. They make a product just like every other company makes a product. They, not the FAA, are ultimately responsible for the product. They have to live with the consequences even as their failure as a company would impact all of us to some extent and I do not want to see them fail.
This is the slippery slope that leads to massive government and crushing regulation. Look what happened to the small private plane industry. There is a free market solution to this problem and we are witnessing it... fix the plane or nobody will buy or fly them. Prevent these failures in the future or nobody will buy or fly your plane.
Blaming the FAA or this President or a previous one for cheering the company is only going to lead to a much larger FAA given our past reactions where government has to solve every problem. It will have costs far beyond the moment.
Consider some examples - In response to 9/11 we created a massive new bureaucracy and grew government immensely and at great cost with the creation of Homeland Security. I am not convinced we are safer for it today.
In response to a massive hurricane called Katrina we bloated and blew up a small federal agency called FEMA who largely existed to write checks to local and state governments after a disaster into a “first responder.” We could have simply signed contracts of some kind with Walmart and other large retailers to quickly deliver supplies to those who needed it. Instead we got many new employees, trucks, warehouses, and other stuff and we have been losing money ever since when there was an easier and more effective non-government solution that would have cost pennies on the dollars.
I want a full accounting of what occurred because it impacts all of us. However, I do not want to pay far more for air travel and in federal taxes because a company screwed up. Blaming the FAA will have repercussions far beyond two plane crashes in foreign countries.
The FAA will certainly respond to the “failure” that they must have more engineers and more employees to review the work of a private company.
Boeing knew the engines were too large for the existing aircraft. They believed they could overcome this problem in the same way it has been overcome on other aircraft with similar problems like the Osprey (long list of failures and casualties) or the F-117 (had its own share of problems) - with software and computers. Given the number of hours the plane operated without a crash, they were somewhat successful even as the fatal flaw remained and eventually resulted in two disastrous failures overseas.
I don’t know the solution and I am upset at the failure. However, my assertion will continue that I don’t want a bigger government in response to a flawed system on a privately designed and sold aircraft.
That might be a solution far worse than the problem and it is a point we would all do well to remember. I provided two very good examples above and there are many more.
Boeing does not make hair dryers. “Limited government”...not zero. Public safety is entrusted to bureaucrats policed by an Inspectors General...gutted by the former president. So at its core the problem of the 737MAX could be laid squarely at 0bama’s feet.
Read my prior posts: I’ve maintained without failure that the plane would be safe in trained pilots’ hands. However, as more information has become available it has become clear that the profit culture between aircraft manufacturers, airlines and the regulating bodies are endangering the flying public...all-the-while we are placated with “statistics” demonstrating a safe mode of travel while engineering the pilots (an expense and liability) out of the equation (i.e., autonomous flight).
I reiterate that the plane would never have killed a soul had it been run through a normal flight testing program. FAA granted Boeing the ability to certify itself and greed delivered defective aircraft.
Oh, but how silly of me: Private company Boeing grounded its own planes, didn’t it? /s
I’m now convinced that if Judicial Watch was to dig deep enough, there will be evidence of the 0bama administration’s fingerprints all over the FAA’s decisions which led to the Boeing self-certification process. Again, it was his administration, after all, which emasculated the IG...
In part, as opposed to your own examples, this is more closely related to Clinton’s technology transfers to China and Uranium One than a simple greedy corporation story like Deepwater Horizon, PGE/Chromium/Brockovich and innumerous other examples of reckless corporate actions.
You wrote:
“They have to live with the consequences even as their failure as a company would impact all of us to some extent and I do not want to see them fail.”
If you believe that and your other (”They, not the FAA, are ultimately responsible for the product.”) then the 737MAX should remain grounded for a year or more, considering that they now no longer believe a simple software fix is the problem (see https://interestingengineering.com/boeing-737-max-8-likely-grounded-for-rest-of-2019-after-new-concerns-raised).
The hardware problem in the flight control system is a major flaw which endangers public safety and with the plane seeing the rest of 2019 on the tarmac, Boeing’s stock is still above its 2018 average; it should be tanking. Boeing cheated to beat out Airbus; shareholders have yet to pay the price for their actions.
Ask yourself “Why?”.
Government didn’t create the problems facing the public resulting from commercial aviation, but they certainly granted these private companies license to operate dangerously:
Kapton wiring
http://www.vision.net.au/~apaterson/aviation/kapton_mangold.htm
737NG structural flaws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWxxtzBTxGU
I’m not going to debate your points further: You have your opinion and I have my own.