The fallout from the blow out of a door on a Boeing 737-Max plane is a bit more serious than I think many realise. Firstly, it appears that the fault was down to poor build quality by Boeing and its subcontractors (who are pointing fingers at each other now). Which is hardly want you want to hear, particularly given the previous two accidents involving the 737-Max and its lengthy grounding.
But it gets worse, apparently the plane had displayed warnings indicating failure of the cabin pressurisation system on three separate occasions before this flight. While Alaska airlines did restrict the plane from flying over water as a result, they didn’t immediately ground the plane, as you’d expect. Also during the accident the cockpit door blew open. This made it difficult for the pilots to communicate and complete the emergency procedure (as there was literally a hurricane blowing through the cockpit). Worse still, it turns out the cockpit door opening was by design (why? Nobody’s entirely sure, handy way for terrorists to get into the cockpit mind!). But nobody on the flight crew had been told about this feature, nor any other pilots flying the Max (which mirrors the issue with MCAS, which had been implemented on the Max without telling any of the pilots about it).
The NTSB have also been unable to listen to the cockpit voice recorder, as it was overwritten, as it only records two hours of conversations (EU law requires 25 hrs of recordings, but due to bribery lobbying by Boeing the US has kept it at 2 hrs). Similar defects to the one on the Alaska airlines flight have also been found during inspections of other Max aircraft (lose bolts, missing washers, etc.). In fact, were still not sure how many are defective, or if this is the only defect.
Hell the other day a 757 was waiting to take off in Atlanta and one of its nose wheel’s just rolled off. Who is building these things? Is it the same guys who build the clown cars? All in all, its no wonder some people are thinking twice before boarding a 737-Max. Incidentally, Ryanair heavily rely on them. Aer Lingus, Easyjet & Jet2 are largely or entirely Airbus. KLM & Air France are phasing all Boeing’s out of their fleet. BA don’t fly any Max’s yet, but have committed to buying them.
A lot of this can be blamed on Boeing’s merger with McDonald Douglas. While Boeing was an engineering firm run by engineers, MD was a corporation run by bean counters, middle managers, corporate lobbyists and office psycho’s. In fact, while MD’s primary business was defence, it used to make passenger airliners. You know why it had to get out of the airliner industry? Because its planes were involved in a string of serious accidents, a number of which were the result of blatant negligence by MD. And, as with the Max, a trend developed of passengers refusing to get on board some of their airliners after these accidents. Indeed a lot of MD planes ended their career’s as cargo planes.
Like some sort of parasite, MD’s corporate culture has taken over Boeing. And its going to have exactly the same outcome. The only question is, how many crashes does it take beforehand. And before Americans go all flag wavy, keep in mind Boeing’s in a mess of its own making here. It ruthlessly destroyed all domestic competition. In fact the only other major airline manufacturer in the US is its rival Airbus, who have an assembly plant state side (as quite a lot of its aircraft are sold to US airlines….and probably even more the way things are going!). So its not like America can’t build planes without Boeing.
We also have to blame the constant pandering by the US government to company’s like Boeing. For example, Boeing asked the government for an exemption for a safety requirement on the Max, just prior to the accident. There’s an issue with the anti-icing system, which could set the engines on fire if its left on for too long….which is also not exactly inspiring confidence! There have been cases in the past where Boeing have been let off with a slap on the wrist fine (i.e. no jail time for executives) for very serious safety lapses.
And recall, the US government not only failed to ground all planes after the first Max crash, but were reluctant to do so after the 2nd one (it was only when they came under international pressure that they acted). And these are the same people lecturing people about pulling themselves up by the boot straps (an impossible task) . Its socialism for corporations, rat race capitalism for everyone else.
daryanenergyblog 