Boeing's Latest Woes: A Timeline

Real World Aviation
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Boeing’s Latest Woes

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Let's Recap
Boeing, now the second largest aerospace manufacturer globally, has definitely had its fair share of issues recently.

October 2018

LionAir flight 610, a brand new 737 MAX 8 plunges into the Java Sea, shortly after takeoff from Jakarta, killing everyone on board, due to a fault in the plane’s MCAS system.

March 2019

Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crashes on departure from Addis Ababa killing everyone onboard, following flight controls issues relating to, once again, MCAS.

March 13th, 2019 - November 18th, 2020

The Federal Aviation Administration follows in the path of China’s CAAC and grounds the MAX 8 while Boeing works through their MCAS issues.

August 2023

Boeing discovered improperly installed aft pressure bulkheads on the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 9, which help ensure the aircraft stays pressurized. Airlines were able to repair the issue with minimal issue.

December 2023

Airline inspectors find missing screws in the MAX 8 and 9 rudder assembly. Upon further investigation, Boeing finds a number of planes affected by this issue.

January 5, 2024

Alaska Airlines flight 1282, a Boeing 737 MAX 9 deployed on a PDX-ONT flight has a door plug (a chunk of fuselage installed in place of an emergency exit) blow off shortly following departure. The plane returned to Portland without incident, but investigators discovered missing screws. The FAA and many of its international partners grounded 737 MAX 9s equipped with door plugs until they could be inspected. Many other aircraft with a similar issue were discovered.

April 2024

Boeing engineer and whistleblower Sam Salehpour alleged that Boeing took shortcuts in the manufacturing of its 777s and 787s. When joining the different parts of the fuselage together, Salehpour alleged that the tiny gaps were not filled. He claims there are thousands of affected aircraft that can catastrophically “break up” in mid air. Boeing denied these allegations.

June 2024

Boeing is currently testifying in Senate about inspection oversights on the factory floor. Boeing executives admitted to having retaliated against whistleblowers in the past. Ex - CEO (who ran the company during the MAX crashes) David Calhoun was called to the Senate floor to testify as part of the bipartisan investigation. He was widely criticized for poor handling of the crashes.

So... What's Going on at Boeing?
This is what the Senate investigation is trying to determine. Boeing has gotten way too cozy with their FAA regulators. They have inspectors on their payroll, which is a massive conflict on interest. Because of this lax oversight, engineers allegedly have cut corners and costs during the manufacturing process.

According to numerous ex Boeing employees, there is an extremely high pressure environment within the company that encourages their employees to work as quickly as possible to meet the tight schedules they set for aircraft testing and delivery. Under stress, people purposefully or unconsciously skip steps or miss things - like tightening a bolt or two.

What are your thoughts on the recent developments?

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The fact that you didn’t mention the United MAX8 incident ( which wasn’t their fault ) really makes me happy

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Poor leadership executed the whole safety ordeal, but Boeing had this coming for a long time.

It is definitely not the end of the road though, as the common consumer really only is affected by the word “airplane”-few people really care about who is truly at fault, because all their information is fed to them by uninterested news sources. The end result? The air travel industry as a whole slows down as American passengers, one of the largest markets globally grinds to a near halt as passengers are now afraid of airplanes irrespective of type or manufacturer.

Airbus, here, has to capitalize on Boeing’s issues and take a marketing offensive, ditching their own low-value customers for high-value Boeing customers (as not even a paneuropean conglomerate can produce an infinite amount of planes, but they’d be more than happy to receive a near-infinite flow of money from rich American companies who are now more like banks than airlines, rather than getting half that money to negotiate with startup airlines in the corner of the world for single-plane orders).

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Nice article as always @Mort 😊

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Boeing committed ‘the deadliest corporate crime in US history’ and should be fined $24 billion, victims’ families say - CNN

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I made sure to only include incidents that were directly Boeing’s fault. A lot of the lists I looked at, even from reputable places like ABC added things like that United incident and the 777 wheel thing at SFO. Interestingly, the most accurate list I found was from FOX News, who aren’t know for their great track record with facts.

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Yeah that was honestly just poor maintenance or bad weather

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Manifestly, you can’t dispute that Boeing shouldn’t be held accountable - they should. After all, their lax safety standards led to the deaths of 346 people. The company management needs a shakeup from top to bottom, and actually stick to the values they themselves list on their own website.

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IMO the Lion Air and Ethiopian airlines crashes had very little to do with MCAS. Yes it did activate, but as a pilot you are trained to aviate navigate and then communicate. The pilots of those aircraft failed to follow that by not taking manual control of the aircraft. To me that is indicative of poorly trained crews, poor safety cultures at those airlines.
Yes there are other factors in these two cases but those are how I read the situation at the time.
The issues with Boeing started when they merged with McDonald Douglas who was run by bean counters not engineers where as prior Boeing was run by engineers.

The current issues are quite indicative of the leadership culture at Boeing currently. I am a Boeing guy and will always be one. Though I can admit when they have a problem. Which they do have and it’s called the DEI hiring policies that is forced on companies by the government. When you hire those with no skills or understanding of composite materials and airframe construction you will see all these issues. When all you need is a heartbeat two hands to build a large passenger aircraft you are bound to have quality issues across the board. But this all goes to highlight penny pinching beancounters who have zero business directing how a aircraft is built as that should be purely up to the engineers.
I hope I didn’t offend anyone, but that is how it looks to me. I personally don’t care about anything but that you are qualified for your position, not just a body to fill a spot on a team. All the blame is squarely on the bean counters at Boeing.

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It had everything to do with MCAS. On the LionAir flight, we know that the captain almost immediately took manual control once something went wrong. According to CVR records, the FO when right for the QRH, which made no mention of MCAS, since it was omitted by Boeing. A Senate investigation determined that the omission was likely intentional, since it would require additional pilot training and federal regulation.

MCAS was designed to override even manual pilot input - it was the end all be all. It also relied on a sole pitot tube for information to run the system, which is a major design flaw since if that one tube was faulty, it could crash the plane (as it did).

The pilots on LionAir 610 didn’t know the procedures for disabling MCAS since it wasn’t in the QRH, which is where they’re trained to look. The crew was incredibly experienced, yet they still would have no way to know a procedure that wasn’t even recorded in the books. The same thing would in all likelihood have happen if this were on a United, WestJet, RyanAir, or AeroMexico plane.

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Welcome to the result of the merger with Mcdonnell Douglas. Profit is the only goal, shareholders the only importance. Its as simple as that. Put all the spins you want on it. The ultimate focus is shareholder satisfaction.

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Here’s an interesting development.

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The 737 max has got to be one of the worst aircraft in History.

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what about the dc10

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I was just about to point that out. There are plenty of lesser know, more dangerous planes then even the DC-10 though.

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100% agreed @Mort.

With all due respect @727Wrench, 346 people died… It’s not appropriate to go and blame it on the pilots, as that is not what happend.

This is such a racist comment. Who Boeing hires might be a mistake, but it has nothing to do with DEI policies set in place to create an inclusive community.

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so hate to break it to you but it actually does

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Agreed. DC10 had a bad rep. And the Max is following the same trajectory.

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I don’t think DEI hiring has as much to do with it as pushing planes out off the assembly line too quickly and with minimal inspection, not because they are unable to inspect, because they just don’t for the sake of speed.

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Especially since DEI hiring is good for a companies success. Study after study has shown the benefits of a diverse workforce.

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