Changes at Boeing

Bob- Got to hate that auto-correct function.

 

From Bloomberg:

Boeing is under regulatory scrutiny again after a survey of company engineers found a sizable percentage said they couldn't raise safety concerns without interference. The FAA action is just the latest to look at Boeing's safety practices after twin fatal crashes of the company's 737 Max planes.

 

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This is obviously ingrained company culture. 'They' (decision makers) think they know better. This relates to the Starliner (ISS crew capsule) debacle as well.

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December 13, 2022
Opinion: The National Security Implications of Boeing’s Woes
https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/opinion-national-security-implications-boeings-woes

"In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the C-17 program was plagued by serious overruns and delays,
largely because McDonnell Douglas’s aircraft design teams were in a state of atrophy.
Boeing is at risk of entering that phase and perhaps an even worse one."

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The old saying that "Crap" flows downhill is truly illustrated here. I worked at Boeing at a crucial time when William A. Allen was president. He was a man of impeccable character and integrity. His self confidence and confidence in his subordinates filtered down through the entire company. You had to back up everything that you did with examples of outstanding work and honesty in whatever problems that you had. No excuses, no blaming somebody else. The prime purpose of your being there was to produce the best airplane possible. Of course, there were always the little empire builders but they had to produce like everybody else. I doubt that there will be another engineering department and manufacturing department with the years of experience and mature and inherited skills that we had then. Some of the repairs to damaged airplanes that the AOA crews did then was unbelievable.

 

The hits keep on coming.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/19/business/boeing-court-appearance/index.html

Boeing ordered to appear in court next week on fraud conspiracy charge

 

I hope that Boeing does a very vigorous defense on this. As these were international flights by non-US airlines the ICAO limits on passenger compensation limits should be raised. With the Lion Air incident they should be pointing out that (a) on the prior day that aircraft had a fault that was correctly identified by a pilot riding the jump seat, no problem when the correct procedure was applied, (b) the overnight maintenance of the aircraft did a box swap but apparently did nothing more to verify fixing the problem, (c) Lion Air's pilot training and recurrent practices have been reported as woefully inadequate. As for the Ethiopia incident they can point to the crew flying through a flock of birds which set in motion a sequence of events. One of these events is that the pilots never throttled back.

 

The point is the ramifications of bad decisions continue for a long time. Therefore, it is cheaper to make good decisions.


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True, but the continued crucifixion of Boeing by the underinformed needs to end. Airbus has a long list of skeletons in their closet too.

 

Hopefully the next time the MBAs recommend cutting corners, they will be ignored. For example, I doubt BP has changed its corporate culture after the Deepwater Horizon blowout. When it works, and it doesn’t always work, google Purdue, our legal punishes those who deliberately make bad decisions.


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