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Boeing: internal emails reveal chaos and incompetence at 737 Max factory
[On] Thursday hundreds of pages of internal messages were delivered to congressional investigators in which Boeing executives mocked their regulator, joked about safety and said the Max had been "designed by clowns".
Shocking as the emails are, they will come as no surprise to those following the Boeing story. Last month Edward Pierson, a former senior manager at Boeing's 737 factory in Renton, Washington, told Congress he had witnessed "chaos" at the factory where the Max was built and had warned management that "Boeing was prioritizing production speed over quality and safety". His warnings were ignored.
Boeing Mocked Lion Air Calls for More 737 Max Training Before Crash
Indonesia's Lion Air considered putting its pilots through simulator training before flying the Boeing Co. 737 Max but abandoned the idea after the planemaker convinced them in 2017 it was unnecessary, according to people familiar with the matter and internal company communications.
The next year, 189 people died when a Lion Air 737 Max plunged into the Java Sea, a disaster blamed in part on inadequate training and the crew's unfamiliarity with a new flight-control feature on the Max that malfunctioned.
[...] "Now friggin Lion Air might need a sim to fly the MAX, and maybe because of their own stupidity. I'm scrambling trying to figure out how to unscrew this now! idiots," one Boeing employee wrote in June 2017 text messages obtained by the company and released by the House committee.
In response, a Boeing colleague replied: "WHAT THE F%$&!!!! But their sister airline is already flying it!" That was an apparent reference to Malindo Air, the Malaysian-based carrier that was the first to fly the Max commercially.
Boeing's biggest supplier lays off 2,800 workers because of 737 Max production suspension
Boeing's largest supplier is laying off a significant number of its employees because of the 737 Max production suspension.
Spirit AeroSystems (SPR), which makes fuselages for the Max as well as other items for Boeing, announced Friday that it is furloughing approximately 2,800 workers. Shares of the Wichita, Kansas-based company fell more than 1% in trading.
"The difficult decision announced today is a necessary step given the uncertainty related to both the timing for resuming 737 Max production and the overall production levels that can be expected following the production suspension," Spirit AeroSystems CEO Tom Gentile said in a press release.
Woodward to Combine With Hexcel in All-Stock Transaction
Woodward Inc. will combine its operations with Hexcel Corp. in an all-stock transaction that gives it a controlling stake in the merged entity, creating one of the world's biggest aerospace and defense suppliers.
The transaction, which the suppliers to Boeing Co. are billing as a merger of equals, will create a company named Woodward Hexcel with annual revenue of more than $5 billion. While suppliers are hurting because of Boeing's travails following the crash of two 737 Maxes, executives said Sunday they're driven by the pursuit for more-efficient engines over the next 20 years, not the 737 Max issues.
Previously: a lot
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @11:09AM (13 children)
Title says it all....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @11:24AM (2 children)
With Boeing I fly.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday January 15 2020, @11:31AM (1 child)
Jews run Boeing, and their Chutzpah...excuse me, hubris, did this to them. What is needed is an expose' regarding how many Jews are in positions of power within Boeing.
I find it difficult to believe that Boeing, being a too-big-to-fail American corporation, is being thrown under the bus just now...unless, of course, people know about the Isreali backdoors in their aircraft which facilitated 9/11.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @11:58AM
Um, the Israeli backdoor is in our government which facilitated 9/11
Boeing [the military part] will be bailed out before it is thrown under the bus. The civilian market will divided up amongst the even more inferior brands from Europe, Brazil, and China. Good thing I'm done traveling. Walking to 7-11 is far enough for me.
(Score: 2) by DrkShadow on Wednesday January 15 2020, @12:35PM (9 children)
Funny, I saw my first real air problems being related to Airbus.
So no airbus and no boeing? Because every model of every company is flawed? No fly for you? Good.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday January 15 2020, @12:49PM (6 children)
No-fly is already wildly popular here because of TSA.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Touché) by SpockLogic on Wednesday January 15 2020, @01:53PM (3 children)
TSA = Thousands Standing Around.
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Wednesday January 15 2020, @01:59PM (1 child)
TSA=Target Saturated Area.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @03:00PM
Touching Smelly Asses
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @07:50PM
Traveling Slave Abusers
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday January 15 2020, @07:11PM
I'm one, I swore off flying when they started the TSA. I spent three decades working for Illinois and have had more than my share of bureaucracy.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday January 16 2020, @02:57PM
Now I get it: It's all part of a secret plan to cut down the carbon emissions without actually telling the people by just making them not want to fly!;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Unixnut on Wednesday January 15 2020, @03:59PM
> Funny, I saw my first real air problems being related to Airbus.
That may be so, but what we are being shown here is not just one persons anecdote about the quality of Boeing. Instead it is a systematic and cultural attitude towards pursuing profit above all else, including safety, engineering quality and following regulations. That is different. This has already caused the avoidable deaths of almost 400 people. This is important for anyone that relies on flying in life (which is a lot of us, and it is growing every year).
It is one thing if the odd Airbus has a problems (or even a crash) due to faults or design flaws that were not realised at the time. What we have here are known faults/design flaws being actively covered up, penny pinching overriding critical engineering decisions, and regulators being essentially lied to.
Also, from what I have heard the rot is not limited to the Max, the other Boeing aircraft are suffering from the same cultural attitude over the last couple of decades, just that the Max was the first to hit public scrutiny (i.e. Boeing pushed its luck too far with this plane).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @08:19PM
Guess you missed the Comet and the Electra.