If only 1% of this is true (and there are credible indications that something is seriously wrong at Boeing, eg. 767 problems for DOD, docommun scandal with 737ng…)
Than this is possibly the biggest tech scandal in human history and first class political scandal for USA…
If any of this is true, I see no other option than to ground a large portion of Boeing planes manufactured after mid. 2000s no matter how disastrous that might be on a global level.
I think if you look into the prevalence of Boeing aircraft, and the sheer amount of airplanes in service, a lot of this is blown way out of proportion. The 737 is the second largest family of commercial aircraft ever produced in history (Airbus A320 is a close third.) Over 10,000 aircraft have been built with an average of 1,250 airborne every second, of every day, and accounts for 25% of all commercial airliners.
Even if all of it is true, air travel (thanks in part to Boeing and Airbus) is the safest form of travel by exponential amounts. I’d gladly fly on a 737 Max tomorrow, because I know I’m 15 times more likely to die on the road to the airport, than on that plane.
That’s all great but I would still like to fly on a plane that’s not assembled with scraped structural parts and without real QC (if allegations are true)
“The last inspector” is a disgruntled former employee whose whistleblower claims failed to show any merit in court. He’s been pushing his story to anyone who will listen for years.
To be honest, given the leadership at Boeing around the time he was fired, I sometimes wonder if some of his claims might have merit, but the leadership changed significantly after one person went to jail, others were forced out, and the 787 mismanagement happened. A lot is different than when he was there.
More importantly, I know many of his claims to simply be false.
Well, docommun scandal also failed to get court epilogue in favor of claims, but it also failed to prove that key structural parts were indeed cnc machined (as required for aircraft to be airworthy) and not made by hand as claimed and seen on video footage !
More importantly court didn’t even want to look into it and simply took side with FAA (makes you think…)
If those claims are even partially true and Boeing/FAA/DOJ are all in the same bed (as suspected) It would be very hard to “prove” anything in court. Boeing is simply considered “too big to fail”.
If things have really changed why are we seeing again so many QC problems (e.g. 767 FOD)
Boeing tried to offset how the new engines “felt” to the pilot through an electronic feed back….and got it wayyyyyy wrong. Not surprising.
From what I understand, Boeing changed engines and didn’t want to retrain thousands of pilots already qualified to fly the 737 so they “solved” the problem with software. So before someone goes off about trusting “software”, you better realize that planes are fly by wire and everything is about software.
The problem with their solution is that you can not simulate every condition, including errant feed back loops. It appears the pilots were “fighting” the plane as it reacted with more violent maneuvers, fighting back the pilots inputs. It’s fixable……as it now will be ONE feedback correction and not as strong as before. That’s it. Done.
I fly 10-15 times a year and while I still hate Windows 3, I still trust what is an ever safer industry.
It is a bit more to it than “how the new engines felt to the pilot”…
Plus they cheapened out and used only two AOA sensors (no redundancy) that are apparently prone to failure. Failing sensors are nothing new for them apparently as in 2008/2009. KLM reported 17 radio altimeter failures in just 6 months on a 737-800. That kind of failure rate should not be acceptable in any industry.
I’m not trying to trash talk on Boeing or even concentrate on recent events, I’m simply trying to understand what’s happening and if current problems have more fundamental causes that could seriously affect passengers safety.
From what I read, that was another issue addressed. A change and redundancy.
I agree with your argument about failure rate. With all glass cockpits, there is not room for second rate components. Worse still is computers deciding “safe” actions based on garbage info. Indeed, these crashes may be exactly that.
BUT…I still trust the next Dreamliner on my next trip. The pilot is not as likely to be texting as the guy in the Honda, ready to crush my bike and me into a bloody heap.
There are always going to be issues with the engineering of parts related to aircraft. Hence service bullitins and A.D.’s. I hate that it has got to the point of innocent lives taken and their families left to suffer. This will be resolved, then they will work on the next problem.
As it looks this situation is not merely caused by engineering issues, the whole chain failed. We can speculate on reasons but money is usually a prime suspect…