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posted by martyb on Wednesday January 15 2020, @10:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the downward-spiral dept.

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


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 16 2020, @10:41AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 16 2020, @10:41AM (#943944)

    "the problem is that no one in the senior management understands the technical stuff, so we end up in a mess"

    The real problem is no one is senior management risks ending up in prison even if they're responsible for hundreds or thousands of people dying.

    If such a risk is significant, you'd see attitudes change. The engineers who understand tech AND also have the same risk or greater will start speaking up. They'll start saying stuff like "Boss, can you send me an email confirming your views that, we should save money and risk the plane crashing if this one sensor fails? These sort of sensors have been known to fail."
    Boss, "Wait, you grossly misheard me, I said we should rely on more than one sensor, Boeing places a high importance on safety!".

    But why should there be any change, if all that happens is nobody of significance ends up in prison, the company pays some fines, the CEO gets a 60 million dollar parachute while keeping the rest of his millions.

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/19/why-boeing-and-its-executives-should-be-prosecuted-for-manslaughter/ [counterpunch.org]

    One such case that came up this month involved a Pennsylvania man who plead guilty to manslaughter. The man was accused of texting while driving and as a result killed a 12-year old girl walking on the side of the road. The driver obviously didn’t intend to kill the 12-year old girl. But due to his recklessness, he did. And he will now spend time in jail.

    If manslaughter charges can be brought against ordinary American citizens, why not against powerful American corporations and their executives?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 16 2020, @04:24PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 16 2020, @04:24PM (#944067)

    Ha ha ha!

    Next email will be - Boss, I need this job, I made a mistake, there's no problems anywhere.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @07:48AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @07:48AM (#944446)
      It's all good if you're fine being the only one going to prison if stuff happens instead of taking down your asshole of a boss with you.

      Currently the problem is the risk of prison is low even for the normal grunts.