Posted on 01/31/2024 8:22:01 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Boeing has had a tumultuous month with a series of public relations disasters that sunk its market price and placed lives at risk. It began when a piece of a door panel blew off a 737 Max 9 aircraft on a routine flight from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California. It led to a temporary grounding of the 737 Max 9, which, upon further inspection, was discovered to have numerous issues, not least being that bolts needed to be tightened.
The Federal Aviation Administration later issued an indefinite grounding of the 737 Max 9 and an audit of Boeing’s manufacturing process. This model has just recently returned to the skies, but an ex-Boeing manager is warning travelers to avoid it at all costs (via NY Post):
Former high-level Boeing managers and engineers have issued startling warnings for flyers to avoid the airplane giant’s troubled 737 MAX 9 jets as the model once again takes to the skies.
“I would absolutely not fly a MAX airplane,” one-time senior Boeing manager Ed Pierson bluntly told the Los Angeles Times of the model that recently saw a door plug blow out in midair on an Alaska Airlines flight.
“I’ve worked in the factory where they were built, and I saw the pressure employees were under to rush the planes out the door.”
Joe Jacobsen, a former Boeing engineer who has also worked at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), gave a similar warning, saying it was “premature” for airlines, including Alaska, to have resumed flying the jets.
“I would tell my family to avoid the MAX,” Jacobsen told the LA Times, claiming that his time at the company made him realize that profits were prioritized over quality control.
Plan your flights accordingly, folks.
They need to get rid of 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 and build a new plane.
Or maybe they just need to build them properly to specs, and not rush through their processes and procedures.
.
Nikki Haley said they’re perfectly fine from the Bank branch she was visiting.
I take about 20 planes per year
I make sure I never travelled on 737max
Every time I book a flight I make sure it’s on an airbus or 787 , 777
Even bombardier or embrer are better then 737 max
I rather pay more
By the way , they will eventually change the name from 737 max to something else. FYI keep an eye out
Forget it
That ain’t happening
I do see airline companies phasing them out but it will take time
I also hear they will change the name of the 737 max
“Organized Labor” - sabotage.
About which, the socialist swamp lies and denies, and “corporate leaders” are petrified and do not dare to correct by their own determination.
So literally BAD WORKS go out the door.
When I walk on an aircraft (which I never do any longer, because the airlines carry Democrat passengers), I always take some reassurance in the knowledge that, if we crash, the pilot’s going to get it before I do.
Probably not gonna happen.
This guy comes off as a loose cannon. If I remember correctly, a 737 takes off somewhere in the world every 30 seconds. And they participate in 44,000 flights per month: https://simpleflying.com/boeing-737-max-november-2021/.
In 2023, there were 38,371 deaths in the US due to automobile accidents. How many people in the US died in commercial plane acvidents and a 737 in particular?
Undoubtedly, the door plug incident was inexcusable. But all in all, air travel on any commercial airplane is astoundingly safe.
I would not hesitate to fly anywhere on any version of the 737 tomorrow.
this was a stupid error, and it will never happen again.
other things, yes. but this no never.
Yep.
BUt, I have been a licensed pilot for over 30 years, before that I had hundreds of hours in ultralight aircraft and hang gliders. My brother has been an airline captain flying 737s for decades. I have lived on an airport with our airplanes for 25 years with mostly airline pilots.
If you don't want to fly on Boeing Airplanes that is fine... just don't. You are still far more likely to get killed or injured on the drive to the airport than in an airliner. "From 2002 to 2020, there were 614 total serious injuries in US air travel, an average of 32 injuries per year. In that same time, 44 million people were injured in passenger cars and trucks on US highways — that’s approximately 2.3 million per year." And if you chose to drive 1000 miles instead of taking a flight... “Effectively, there have been zero deaths per 100 million passenger air travel miles each year from 2002 to 2020. The average annual fatality rate over that time was .01 deaths per 100 million miles traveled. The death rate for passenger cars and trucks on US highways — though it declined from .7 deaths per 100 million passenger miles in 2002 to .5 deaths in 2020 — remains significantly higher.”
https://usafacts.org/articles/is-flying-safer-than-driving/
So lets see... .5 deaths per million miles vs .01 deaths per million miles. If you do the math that means that travel by automobile is 500 times more likely to result in a death per mile than flying in an airliner.
You would probably be better off trying to figure out which bathtub brand is the safest. In the USA alone approximately 1 person a day dies from a bathroom related injury.
How Flying Today Is Safer Than At Any Time In The Past
Just flew in one today.
Not a problem. Right now probably one of the safest planes in the sky.
Stop relying on disgruntled ex-employees comments.
Precisely!
So the death rate is equal if I travel 50x further by air, or the same odds of a 40 mile car trip compared to a 2000 plane flight.
Bookmark.
.
These changes made new aircraft's landing and take off and flight characteristics different from that of the 737. This subverted Boeing's sales pitch to airlines that pilots would be able to transition easily to the Max series without costly retraining. To save the sales pitch, Boeing went to a sophisticated computer flight control system so that the Max would mimic the handling of the old 737.
Unfortunately, this created a fundamental tension between the 737 Max's innate handling and flight characteristics and its computer control system. The software needed to overcome that problem had a troubled development history, with code written by low wage Indian contractors riddled with errors and bugs that had to be ferreted out and corrected.
Worse, the flight control software was not mature before the first 737 Maxes were put into service. Software fixes were in process, and the back pages of some flight manuals explained the problems and how to address them, but the transition training for pilots did not. The result was two fatal 737 Max crashes in Africa.
More fundamentally, Boeing suffers from a decline in management, engineering quality, and fit and finish in comparison to Airbus. About fifteen years ago, airline pilots familiar with both types came to regard Airbus as producing better aircraft. This was the result of Boeing management prioritizing cost savings over engineering and aircraft build quality.
Foolishly, Boeing went to a manufacturing system that split off or subcontracted the build of major components. This led to complicated issues with quality control and the timing of deliveries that Boeing had little control over. Hence the recent door plug blowout.
Unfortunately, for a large corporation building complicated products, the needed changes in manufacturing and quality control take time, retraining, changes in process, and new plants, tools, and hiring. By now, Boeing and the industry broadly know what needs to be done, but it is not at all clear that Boeing will be able to do it in time and at an affordable cost.
Boeing should probably be broken up into a profitable and safe legacy division and a new division or company taking on the Max and other problematic models and product lines. Then pack the new division or company with the best engineers and quality control people they can find.
Its like a car that explodes on impact but they are still selling them
Trial Lawyer news network. It’s a large corporation with lots of capital. So, it’s a big Target for private and public (gov) arbitrators and regulators to skim a living from.
No more (FedRes) Easy Money and Recession. So look for these schemes all over.
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.