'Not a good thing': Boeing whistleblower reacts to Alaska Airlines mid-flight incident
2024 ж. 8 Қаң.
324 220 Рет қаралды
Boeing whistleblower, Ed Pierson, tells CNN's Phil Mattingly he is not surprised a door plug blew off an Alaska Airlines flight mid-air and warns that when an issue happens on one plane, "there's a very good chance of it happening on other planes."
#cnn #news
Boeing regrets the impact on Stockholders. Thankfully no investors were hurt in this incident!
😂😂😂😂😂
Haley is the face of Boeing she's gotta be pissed where she's situated herself 😂
@@TRUMP_IS_YOUR_NEXT_PRESIDENT really the deocrat don't back big business like trump does u know only 20 percent of Americans believe trump keep it up
The biggest problem that each of us will face very soon is the increase in natural disasters. We are entering an era of huge disasters of enormous power and scale. Compared to this, all the other problems will seem a little trifle. If we do nothing now, in 5-7 years it will be impossible to live on the planet. There is a solution and a way out, but we need to take action. Only when billions speak out, will scientists, presidents and the media hear us. The real reason for the rapid increase of catastrophes, and also the way out of the situation are voiced here: "Global Crisis. The Responsibility" (online forum).
BEST COMMENT on this topic EVER!!!
This is what happens when corporate greed overrides passenger safety.
FAA regulations.
@@bngr_bngr What regulations?
Or, an example of the decline in the American work ethic. Too many Americans don’t take pride in their work, and supervisors aren’t easily able to berate the lazy or indifferent?
@@danielmartin7838 Let's be honest 5 seconds here....Americans are obsessed with money, only country with modern slavery working conditions in the OCDE. This country has its priorities so wrong that's appalling !
Most of Boeing’s major assemblies, sub-assemblies, and parts in general, are farmed out to the lowest bidder, who in turn are required to adhere to all QC/QA practices, procedures, and documentation.
What I would like to see is Boeing top executives and management being made to ditch their private jets and ONLY fly in 737-Max for ALL their business travels. And THEN watch it become the safest aircraft in the skies overnight.
You assume private Jets are safer..???..........History says not.............Paul
@@paulholterhaus7084 you're missing the point......"Paul"
FAA officials as well.
@@dustoff499 damn right!
I like how you think. 😉
Respect to this man. Not an easy job to publicly take on Boeing, might be easy when something happens, but other 350 days of the year I imagine it feels like you're talking to wall in a corrupt system where no one cares
This man is a hero, Ed. ( Documentary Flight Risk) He is exactly right. There has been a huge move to eliminate Quality Inspectors. Someone I know came home exhausted from arguing with people who wanted him to release parts he shouldn't or to by pass process just so they could move the plane. When you hear Boeing say they are committed to safety it is crazy. Ever since McDonnell Douglas merger the goal has been stock price over quality of product. Why is safety even an "option" ? There was huge turnover after the 2013-2014 contract mess and most of the experienced people have either retired or left the company all together. My husband retired early because of the culture that has taken over this once great company. Congress should investigate and FAA should never allow Boeing to self inspect these airplanes.
Thank you for posting your experience! That's scary.
Hello. 🙋
I live in Western Washington, know many retired or former Boeing employees who are angry about how far Boeing has fallen in favor of profits first. This used to be a great company and product.
@@carlabarrick8538I’m GA, not commercial or production. 2nd generation technician with emphasis in fuel QA, fire safety and training. I took work up in Seattle a little over a year ago and was promptly frightened by the lack of QA & safety oversight. It isn’t just Boeing out there. It’s the culture of the industry in that locality. I tried to offer up my professional experience to address these gaps and no one was particularly interested in addressing it. “We’re not going to discuss that right now” and “there’s a lot going on behind the scenes you aren’t aware of” were very common statements by leadership
MacAir destroyed Boeing. I had to leave Boeing because they got so bad. Poor engineering with lots of corner cutting and no quality at all. They push out senior people who know better and replace them with junior people who do what they are told to do. Production is doing their best, but schedule and low cost is king.
People looked super chill for their plane door is blown off. Props to everyone for staying fking calm.
Literally, as the air temperature dropped to zero at 16K feet.
Same physiological reaction as a deer in headlights, decompression happens to fast the fight or flight system overloads and just shuts down all together. Took seconds to feel cold. Most likely complaining started to happen when almost back to the ground.
They had no choice
This is what happens when companies cut corners to maximize profits
Chinese bolts?
as added benefit....ticket prices GO UP.
And you are surprised by this? Every company cuts corners as close as they can.
Boeing managers are pressured by executives to look the other way when safety issues are brought to their attention. Unfortunately this is the type of behavior that is rewarded until something like this happens. Then those same managers will loose their jobs and be replaced by someone else who will do the same things. It is a calculated risk that these corporations build into their business models.
View it from their point of view : they make more money, and there are no consequences. It would me malpractice to not take the extra free money.
Throw in the new managers in new factories like South Carolina who have never even known or experienced what proper management or quality looks like. No wonder many international airlines like Qatar/Emirates often refuse orders from these factories due to repeat poor quality/errors. Embarrasing on a global scale
"loose (sic) their jobs". Loose jobs, loose bolts........ I'm seeing a pattern here.
Being a nurse I see it in the news about my profession. Ever heard of the nurse in Tennessee a few years ago? Hospital and nurse names withheld, you can look it up. Some leeway has to exist for "just culture". Probably the reason "whistle-blower" laws exist. Food for thought.
@@albertdowrn Just culture is supposed to be a cornerstone of aviation. Someone needs to tell Boeing.
That door could have hit a house, car, person/people and could have been deadly to the passengers if occurred at a greater altitude.
If this happened at cruising altitude, with the seat belt signs off, people would have been sucked out the hole in the aircraft. Boeing really dodged a massive bullet here.
1000%. Not to mentioned fly objects at hundreds of miles per hour or people, that could have hit people with their seatbelts on, on their way out the hole.
It could have hit the tail of the plane and then then plane would have crashed.
@@frankcarty At cruise altitude, being sucked out and low temperature is the least of your concerns. The pressure differential becomes around 50+ kPa. A much smaller hole in the tail of JAL 123 destroyed the entire vertical stabilizer when it formed at cruise altitude. The damage here would've likely been astonishing as well. Even at barely 20 kPa difference, it bent metal, blew out phones and even torn the shirt from a kid.
Even the horizontal stabilizer. Could have been catastrophic.
9:38 Its is time for the FAA to clamp down and deny Boeing request for exemptions, and past time for Boeing Executives, Managers and the Board to be held personally accountable financially and criminally
Better yet, find the mechanic or inspector who made these mistakes and retrain them. That approach will solve this isolated issue.
We should not stand still tell every American company is bankrupt.
I agree. That would destroy the economy of blue state Washington.
Where is Pete Butigidge?
@@jlvandat69 There's nothing isolated about it. And "retraining" people will have no effect. Boeings corporate culture from the very top is to push planes out the door as quickly and cheaply as possible and to hell with the consequences. They used to be the worlds greatest civil aviation manufacturer. They are now a bunch of incompetent corporate criminal hacks.
There were qualty control workers at Boeing some years ago who picked up quality issues with subcontractors and reported them back to Boeing and they were told to ignore them. When they tried to get the issues resolved...they were fired...
I hope they sue.
@@BigHeartNoBS They can’t afford to sue Boeing because Boeing have a larger army of lawyers.
All of the seats are loaded in from the front door! The plug is not tampered with at all.
Unfortunately, this company is putting profits over quality and should be held accountable!! People can die from this!!!
People already have. RIP the passengers of the Lion Air and Ethiopian flights that crashed.
300+ dead from two acciddents of boeing maxs in 2018. this plane should never be in the air.
All 737 Max' need to be grounded
What a joke. They’ve had quality control issues for a decade. I was on one of these planes less than a week ago sitting literally in the aisle behind where this disaster occurred. I’m furious.
Ever since McDonnell Douglas merged and took over the management.
*you would be an other number of boeing victim*
I've had the same talks at my factory when something went wrong. They tell us to be very careful, put a dot on the parts to show that they're installed, make sure someone double checks. Now sign the form that you were here for the safety meeting. That will make those bosses not liable. Fast forward some time. Lots of parts are needed. The bosses want you to make crazy parts. You're missing a gauge and you tell your boss, he says just carry on, he signs the paperwork. All that talk about safety is thrown out the window! Nothing changes unless you have the right bosses that will not settle for less than perfect and if the job takes a tiny bit longer, then that's life. Just make a good product! Don't pressure people to rush, now you pay for it dearly!
SPOILER ALERT!: Terrible working conditions, low pay but it was a subcontractor so "not our fault".
You know you're bad you're recruiting people from fast good chains....and those same people aren't bothering to stick around. Literally what's been happening since they set up shop in the south in places like South Carolina etc.
So how much do they get payed?
Subcontractor made the door. This was 100% an install error. They wont be able to blame the subcontractor.
@@gibbage1 I'm sure they overtax the installers too. Pay them more, less work hours.
Boeing used to be run by engineers who took pride in their work. That sounds so quaint!
It’s a real life Wall Street movie
It used to be that one would be scared of getting onto an old aircraft, but now we will all be anxious of getting onto a brand new one. The good old days hey ..... jokes aside, totally unacceptable.
Technically it's a new old plane, but yeah
When MBA and lawyers are allowed to run an engineering corporation.
lutzfilor8253 The product is good, the assembly is not. New management, or blet Airbus take them over now.
@@lucasrem who runs the assembly? Bean counters.
Where have you been hiding for the last 30+ years? Look around. Airlines aren't run by pilots anymore. Most business are not run by the people who know the products because the all-important Wall Street Stockbrokers only want one thing. Every Company meeting is about profit and publicly held companies yammer on about EBITA etc, and that means what you are making has no real value.
@@n.gineer8102 Safety has been sacrificed on the altar of the quarterly results.
@@n.gineer8102 that is my point. Let the business run by the people who know the business - not people jest claiming how to do it.
This aviation quality assurance issue is so much more common than the average person realizes. I worked for an EXTREMELY popular general aviation manufacturer, and the employees there treat the job like they’re flipping burgers at McDonald’s. The culture there is “do the least amount of work to push the planes out the door as fast as possible”. I’ve witnessed bolts not being torqued to spec, blueprints not being followed, etc etc. I raised my concerns with management and they laughed it off. One senior mechanic said “who cares?” because the aileron pushrod bolt apparently wasn’t important enough to him. I explained to him that I care because I FLY these aircraft. I don’t want to die in them because the ONE bolt connecting the pushrod came loose. This was so frustrating because I went to school for this and take it seriously, whereas the employees and management were obviously complacent as they’ve been working there for years. One employee told me “if the plane was assembled in one go with no issues, then it wasn’t assembled right”. Please read that again and let it sink in. This manufacturer also has a well-documented history of their wings falling off mid-flight, and after working for them I now see why. With all that I saw & my failed attempts to rectify these issues, I left after only 4 months of employment.
I think you would become a great employer under Ed's team of inspection safety.
“This manufacturer also has a well-documented history of their wings falling off midflight.” Can you provide documentation for that claim?
@@andredarin8966 I tried replying with links but youtube is acting up (I hate to be that guy). If you google “Piper wing separation” you’ll find a plethora of articles from reputable sources including AOPA and the NTSB discussing different Piper wing separation accidents, including the most notable one that occurred in 2018 at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the school I graduated from. Upon inspection of the remaining fleet they discovered more aircraft with similar wing spar cracks. They subsequently did away with all Piper Cherokees and have operated Cessna Skyhawk 172s since. The most recent wing separation I know of occurred last August at Aviator College of Aeronautical Science & Technology in Fort Pierce. I’m sorry I couldn’t include the links but I tried.
@@andredarin8966my mind first went to piper.
That’s seriously messed up
I worked for a company that had Boeing as a customer. My experience with Boeing employees is that they are angry, angry people. They were non-professional, rude, arrogant, and angry people who had no ability to communicate productively. Now these people were not engineers, designers, or had anything to do with the planes themselves, but I have to wonder at the work culture there which produces these attitudes.
Worked aviation 46 years. Whenever Boeing came into the picture for a project, they acted like they owned to place. They where right and everybody else didn't know what they were talking about attitude.
@@1sickbastard-eu6le I believe it.
You think every last one of them is angry, angry?
@@jaym8257 Try working under psychotic management.
@@jaym8257, you definitely should read about the early years of “Cisco Systems”.
Guys, fly Airbus planes. Here in Europe we still have quality assurance.
Lol, yea like Airbus is perfect.... Plus there are plenty airbus in the US....
@@puerco911 check accidents, fatalities worldwide in ICAO report. Europe has lower rate than US. Facts, no opinions. Airbus is not perfect but safer than Boeing nowdays .
I do!
What about the Airbus final assembly line in Alabama? That's a serious question. Do they have the same working conditions as European workers, or as American workers?
Good thing with Arbus is the wider EU regulations. Also whilst partly being French it has ownership stakes and factories in various other countries, it can't just buy & pressure politicians/regulators with lobbyists & flexing it's military/national importance to 1 sole country. Boeing literally still marks it's own homework & even few days ago was asking for yet more EXEMPTIONS for it's Max variants....let that sink in, exemptions from aviation safety regs. Exemptions. Not even self certification/marking our own home work....exemptions. Jesus wept.
A company wide safety meeting doesn’t change the fact that finance bros are in charge at the company instead of engineers. The problem is at the top not the bottom.
Thank you so much for having him on. He needs to be heard! Here in the PacificNorthwest most of our flights are on Boeing planes and now I’m scared to get on one.
1:22 CNN showing us a picture of a A320 on a story about 737s.
Well, I'm only flying Airbus for a while. What happened to American manufacturing!?, It's gone up the shitter!
Good thing that plug didnt hit the elevator...if the elevator was damaged and elevator authority was lost, control of the plane may have been lost.
This should be a lesson to all Corporate types who are simply pushing too hard! Making small cost savings by over demanding on employees is nothing compared to the profit loss from a major failure! I have no doubt there are a whole lot of boeing executives who should no longer have a job!
charlesbrewer6552 Corporate type ? Lesson, this,. why ? The design is good, bas assembly only. FAA people should clean Boeing, but they all work for them. Better regulation or nationize them now, let Airbus takeover them ?
@@lucasremSome years ago Boeing attempted to improve quality at their Seattle plant. They acquired an Airbus and parked it beside the factory and had it partially stripped. Then they bought groups of workers on a tour of the plane to show them how an aircraft should be built.
My late father was an aeronautics engineer specialising in flight safety. He would turn in his grave about this news. It's the same thing everywhere now, both in the public as well as the private sector, the main goal is to save as much money as possible in order to increase the profit for the management and shareholders, at the cost of product quality, customers and workers.
Absolutely! It's appalling!
As a member of "the management," I can tell you that it's going to the shareholders/business owners as profit. If you think that management is pocketing a penny of the savings realized by cutting corners, you're generally mistaken. Especially line and middle management are typically people who once did the jobs of the people they manage, and we share with those people the attribute that NONE of us wants to build a poor or unreliable product, especially when doing so could cost lives.
@@migbham1 I don't doubt that that's true for your company if you say so, but that's not the case everywhere. In many companies there are even to many managers in relation to workers. And the principle still holds as the main cause of such problems, regardless of who profits exactly.
Boeing knew this door could rip off yet did not alert anyone in the airline to not to sit children near this door!! Thank God the little boy survived just having his top ripped off but oh therapy and Nightmares this child's going to have for the rest of his life.
WTF is all this spam in here? Unbelievable
Reported as many as I could
So, Jenifer Homendy the Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board and all flight crew on board only learnt today that the cockpit door is designed to open during rapid decompression. God help me!!! 😮
You can't make this stuff up.
This is probably not something everyone needed to know. Now terrorists know how to open the cockpit door. Yay.
I thought the cockpit door was designed to prevent this, which it failed, meaning 2 failures in a brand new plane
There isn't any mention that had the passengers not have their seatbelts fastened, many would have been sucked out of the plane.
Do you need to be told the obvious?
Not at that altitude.
@@devilsson6660 Not all people are as smart as you and these things need to be said. Keep the smart remarks to yourself.
@@maplebones Especially at that altitude. That kid had his shirt ripped off and would have been sucked out if not for his seatbelt.
@timothy4772 Well, you have to admit it was a pretty ignorant comment on your part...especially since that was said when it first happened 🤪
All Boeing management should be dismissed and replaced with competent aircraft engineers. Then when the engineers have restored competence to the manufacturing of aircraft a small team of competent managers and financiers should be re instated and the company should maintain this ratio. Trust / Profits will return to Boeing as it was in the past.
The "Auto Fail" light (mentioned by the NTSB) illuminating generally indicates a failure of the pressurization controller. It may also indicate that there is another issue i.e. the controller is working, but there is an unscheduled "excessive" increase in cabin altitude and the controller cannot manage that change, and high cabin altitude if the controller is not responding properly/in time (obviously with the door departing).
1:20 C'mon, that's not a Boeing, that's an A320
This lack of quality control on the production line at Boeing seems to be a result of the people at the top have become too narcissistic to the point they are callous and greedy with a reckless disregard for the well being of people whether they are staff or paying passengers. Heads need to roll.
I doubt the people at the top can identify a wrench, let alone use it. It's ironic that there are no oxygen masks for Senior Management, they seem like the ones that should have them.
I was at Boeing for 27 years and they went from being a great company to being nothing more than a dumpster for. Truly sad to see the leadership across the board destroy this company.
The fact that 'more' loose bolts on the plug door fastenings have been found (they are still refusing to say how many) suggests that there is probably an issue with torque sensors in the machines used to tighten the bolts during the manufacture of the airplanes.
That door plug is so slight! Very thin. It's not like a regular door that is the thickness of the fuselage. At least the part they recovered is extremely thin in comparison. If I'm a passenger I'd refuse to sit anywhere next to these door plugs. Seems like a design flaw trying to make these door plug emergency exits optional. Airlines should specify if they want the door or not. If they do, then Boeing should offer the models with actual doors. And if airlines do not, then Boeing should simply omit that space for a plug and build the fuselage without it.
Airlines make one fuselage with enough door frames for every cabin layout. If the layout, like in this case, does not require that door, it is plugged. There is no sense to make two or three different fuselages. That costs so much money that the airliner will be extremely expensive.
Three decompression warnings, and they keep on flying the plane with passengers. What does this tell you about aviation safety procedures?
There are two crucial documentaries that explored the Boeing issues with the MCAS and lack of training and testing which ended up in experienced pilots not knowing how to control the override (which pilots SHOULD have been trained on, but Boeing was more keen on getting a craft in the air that would compete with Airbus)- Frontline's "Boeing's Fatal Flaw" and "Downfall: the Case Against Boeing" on Netflix. By discussing Boeing specifically, these documentaries delve into the true dangers of companies that have switched to a 'bottom line' mentality from a previous 'quality at all costs' mentality. Engineers and other Boeing employees that were there during this ideological shift talk about how the culture went from one where safety was paramount (if ANYONE on the line spotted a potential issue with a Boeing aircraft, they would halt production until the problem was addressed) to one like most large corporations- how to get product moving, regardless of potential safety problems. The tragedy is that so many of us still hear the name 'Boeing' and remember the previous reputation when it is no longer applicable.
This is what happens when accountants get to run engineering companies.
@@eamonryan2198 Same mentality at NASA, management overruling engineers caused a space shuttle to explode during boost phase.
As an engineering leader (software and financial services), it blew my mind to learn from the first documentary that Boeing had outsourced the full manufacture of so many safety and flight dynamic critical components to the lowest bidder, quite often, in India. And if any readers lament how profit over quality driven Boeing is, you'd likely not believe how much worse... Infinitely worse... this mentality is to operations in India to which jobs of this nature are outsourced.
@@migbham1 "My code compiled! Ship it!"
Add in the "just in time" philosophy for materials & parts to cut costs and you have a blueprint of a disaster waiting to happen.
And yet the disparity of the Boeing CEO vs the factory worker salaries is the greatest in the company's history.
"When one door closes another door opens" - Boeing
Monopoly is great until the bolts fall off.🤔🙏🙏🙏
Duopoly
Just last night I finally got a hold of some detail drawings and blueprints of the design of that door plug. It doesn't matter whether the bolts are loose, they can be finger tight and put a cotter pin in it that door is not going anywhere, by Design. As long as all four or any of those four bolts are present it doesn't appear that enough movement in that door can occur to allow it to disembark the aircraft. The fact that they didn't find any of those four bolts with that door. Is very disconcerting, it means that the door plug assembly was never properly or fully installed. That is not a function of design that is because somebody at the factory failed to do their job, and it appears to have been intentional. It just isn't possible that somebody threw the door onto the plane, didn't install the bolts and walked away from it, went to lunch, I just failed to sign off on the paperwork. Or he signed off on the paperwork through the bolts in and then left it with no Castle nuts or cotter pins. Given the fact that the plane hasn't been in the air for more than two and a half months, my guess is that the nuts and cotter pins were never installed. That sounds like an intentional Act!
Production managers say time to sell sell sell, more beans sell.
It's looking more like the 4 bolts that pin the door aren't the problem, it's the anchor bolts holding the hinges and the pin guide to the airframe. If that's the case there are going to be a lot more bolts to check than for those doors.
At least you are reasonable in your assessment. It's not about a greedy company or the or their workforce. It may come down to incompetence of one or two people. I hope it was not intentional. Boeing should be able to track down who the worker was who was responsible. And I hope the cotter pins are up to the task for a part that is critical to the safety of the aircraft.
I think at this point, the only thing that likely the public and investors will accept is a full change in management and a return to the days where safety was a true priority. Chasing quarterly gains on stock is what led to a culture of ignoring safety. I'd say put the whistle blowers on the Board of Directors and then we can all rest and fly easier.
they removed QUALITY control?????????
The bolts do not have locking nuts, they are not designed to be tight. They have pins through the nut to stop it from coming off. This is similar to a car's wheel bearing retaining nut.
This guy is a hero for his efforts. I really hope it helps prevent boeing from bypassing any more safety processes.
Shameful, embarrassing, incriminating even. How many chances does a company like this get to redeem itself?
The locking bolts don't have to be tight. They just serve as pins to block vertical movement. If they still have the castellated nuts and cotter pins, they can't fall out. More likely are the bolts that hold the door to the hinges. They can loosen and fall out, causing the plug to detach from the hinges.
Absolute BS. Why would a door plug blow out on decompression. The door plug caused the decompression.
What? Do they really think they are going to find the bolts on the ground? I mean a big white door is one thing, but bolts?
They already found 2 cell phones, a headrest and the door itself.. lol i guess they know the area
If I have learned anything from watching the air crash investigations tv series is that the NTSB investigators can perform near miracles when it comes to piecing together planes from literal scraps and finding small parts such as this. A truly remarkable organization.
The odds are against them finding them, but never say never.
@@PedroConejo1939 Yeah it’s a difficult task for sure.
I too hold the NTSB and the FAA for not doing due diligence by performing spot inspections. If a company that was so negligent was not followed up on is testament to the poor oversight of the those and other regulatory bodies.
albertdowrn The FAA people all work for Boeing themselves. The design is good, only bad assembly issues.
@@lucasrem ah the best government money can buy!
@@lucasrem Let me correct you. The design of the 737 was good in the 1960s when it emerged. It remained good up to the 800 series, when the engines became too fat for the ground clearance. At that point the design became obsolete. But Boeing, instead of designing a brand new single aisle aircraft kept on tweaking the obsolete 737. Putting the very large fan engines on the 737 was a bridge too far. If you see a max plane on the ground, it's as plain as the nose on your face that aircraft and engines don't match. So, enter another tweak to correct the awkward handling and the airlines and pilots are given insufficient information on how to control MCAS. Now, it's not just bad design, but the addition of indifferent build quality. It was poor build quality that killed the British car industry. And the same level of indifference will do for Boeing also. There was a time when Boeing might have been too big to fail, but that day is almost over. The replacement for the 737 should have been been flying in the 1990s, or early 2000s. Now they don't have sufficient engineers or designers to get the job done quickly enough. Life cannot be measured in quarterly results.
The physics would suggest a door plug should be set inside the plane as the pressure on the inside would hold the plug by pushing it outward. Having the plug mounted from the outside of the plane places much more pressure on the securing device such as hinges and bolts. Typically the emergency wing exits need to come into the plane then be turned and thrown out. This is a more fail-safe method for a plug not very able to fit out the hole and constantly being held against the whole perimeter edge rather than a few bolts.
I retired from a US Air Carrier but during my time I was sent to Renton to inspect new 737 and 757 A/C prior to the MAX Series. My company had me inspect many different operations of the assembly but also not inspect other critical items. I was told that Boeing had their own inspectors look at these items but I never saw that. What I was chosen to inspect was often superfluous items while I was not to look at other critical things. I caught many, many serious things wrong with the A/C we were to take delivery of later. This was during the takeover of McDonnell-Douglas and a time when many A/C were waiting for parts and components from vendors and there was a rush of orders for the 737 Next Gen A/C.
I remember an article about the quality at their S.C. plant. Managers would get parts from the reject pile and make technicians instal them.
The behind scences documentary of that plant is truly shocking. And this was years ago. Nothing's changed despite the huge publicity. Many international airlines like Qatar/Emirates (most key customers) literally refuse to take aircraft from that factory. Embarrasing on a global scale
Frankenplanes, made up of rejected parts and loose bolts.
Many of those planes had flown to Everett to be repaired properly. Heard horror stories from those that work there regarding what they found.
United and Alaska have been my go to airlines for the past 30 years. Boeing has become the Tesla of airplanes when it comes to quality control. Moving forward, I will now give my business to airlines flying Airbus.
Luckily you live where you are free to make such a choice; not sure how though. United flies Airbus and Embraer so maybe not? Southwest will be sorry to hear this though as the only fly 737.
The global Max fleet needs to be grounded pending inspection of these door plugs. Loose bolts are not going to be limited to the Max 9 unless that factory ONLY produces the Max 9.
Wait the door IS DESIGNED to open during decompression? WTF???
This is so sad. the culture that allowed for this to happen, sadly will not be fixed overnight.
Fly safe fly airbus 😂😂
knowing this, check the torque wrench used to torque the bolts in question, not calibrated, or calibrated wrong.
4 castle nuts with cotter pins are the only thing holding that door plug in place. The two at the bottom being more crucial than the two at the top. Someone either failed to install the cotter pins or they actually reused the cotter pins. They should ALWAYS replace the cotter pin when removing and re-installing a castle nut. A used cotter pin will be structurally compromised and can snap off as a result due to vibrations, turbulence and hard landings. It's just a soft piece of flexible metal like a large paperclip. It fits into the castle nut and keeps it from turning loose. A new cotter pin is bent exactly once. But a used one is bent multiple times. Take a paperclip and keep bending it back and forth and it will snap. Same thing with a cotter pin. Half the time they break when removing a cotter pin. Combination of training and QA process to ensure things are done properly at every single step of the way during manufacturing and repair is crucial. Work needs to be checked and re-checked frequently and signed off on by multiple workers. The interior panels should not have been installed until an inspector can review the door plug is installed and secured correctly. The whistle blower is claiming that Boeing is shaving corners and pushing workers to sign off on things so they can move the logistics along faster. Workers are overextended and working too many hours. Staffing issues might mean someone not as skilled is asked to do a job they don't normally perform and perhaps they aren't reviewing the procedure and ensuring it is done properly. The troubling issue is more planes were inspected and found the castle nuts were loose. Meaning NO COTTER PINS installed or they sheared off. It could also be a supply issue, a vendor providing the cotter pins and castle nuts that are flawed with defects in the metal which could cause the nut to crack in half, etc. No doubt they will be examining the other planes with loose castle nuts and determine what is going on. Lovely when shaving pennies can lead to the loss of human life. Damn lucky no one was hurt in this incident.
Who in their right mind would ever fly in a plane that is named after a bouncing noise : “Boing! Boing!” ??
Boeing: The pursuit of corporate profits far exceeds the pursuit of safety. The Corporate officers and Shareholders is our top priority.
Accounts: We can save a TON of money by outsourcing components that we now produce in house. CEO, sure thing, let's do it!
If the door was made to blow out, no one should ever be allowed to sit by those door sections!
The doors aren’t made to blow out at all. They were simply making reference to the fact that instead of popping outward when it broke free, the curve of the plug caught air and was forced upward. It’s probably better that it didn’t blow outward. It would have more than likely damaged the lateral stabilizer on the wing.
Whistleblower says this is not a good thing! Who would have thought ! 😂
So why didn't the maintenance team of the respective airlines not review this as part of their maintenance checks? The decompression lights should have been a red flag for Alaska airlines to at least be proactive and check it out. Instead they decided not to allow the planes fly over water. SMH
The answer is always the money
Alaska is guilty of negligent operation but why the hell should they have to accept brand new aircraft with such problems? Bottom line is Boing is building flying coffins.
Because it is not standard procedure to dismantle new aircraft to the studs. No more than overhauling and deep detailing a new car.
@@outermarker5801 Is it standard procedure to ignore decompression light warnings?
@@petercollingwood522 There is plenty of blame to go around. But thinking of this logically, had Alaska's maintenance team taken seriously the decompression warning lights that were reported not once but twice, this incident would have been averted and the FAA and other airlines would be on the alerted and hold Boeing accountable.
Those loose bolts have castellated nuts and are cotter pinned in place. Even a loose bolt shouldn’t have let the door go flying, I think it had no bolts at all
Man oh Man!
Companies will always cut corners safety-wise in order to make a profit, it's simple.
This is definetly a leadership issue. The engineers want nothing more than to deliver high quality products to the customers. Unfortunetly I think the leadership right now is making it impossible for them to do so. This has been a trend since we saw the merger between Boeing and Mcdonnel.
“Thank you for your EXCELLENT reporting “ SMH the standards have become so low that repeating the words of a witness is “excellence”.
1:21 is an A320. Check the registration, its easy to find out what kind of plane it is.
The Boeing Cost-cutting Airplane Company. By definition, a camel is a horse that was designed by a bunch of drunk engineers at a barbeque. The issues with the MAX series had started when Boeing insisted upon not redesigning the wing when a decision was made to replace the original engines, a decision which caused the CG to shift, and the rest is history.
Someone didn't want to buy anything but 737's. Thats why the 757 is no longer in production. Can't sell what people won't buy, even when its better.
Boeing may have to go the extraordinary route of having two inspectors signing of critical installations or maint on the MAX!! the 747,757,767,777, 787,717 etc etc all have very good safety records- But this MAX series is the lion share of their commercial business!!
Lion? Did you know the 737-8 max killed every passenger on the lion flight.
@@nexx1 Yes I did- and I sent money to help the families on the Go fund me site at the time!
"OK, employees, listen up. We need to make sure to tighten bolts moving forwards, as least while we are under scrutiny for this recent anomaly. Alright, back to work!"
Loose bolts? They are crown nuts with slot to have a metal plug inserted on the bolt locking the nut. They have to not be there to be loose. Thats not a distraction, thats negligence at the worst level. They forgot to put them there, the four of them, and nobody later noticed while instaling the interior.
I remember like it was just yesterday the Challenger disaster and the engineers from Morton Thiokol who built the SRB(Solid Rocket Booster) stated that they shouldn't launch due to there concerns with the rubber O sealant rings and the low temperature, yet they launched and killed all those astronauts and they also killed the lives of there families and the people that were associated with the program, consciousness is a horrible thing to live when it could have been prevented, sounds very familiar, again and again this happens because of something called $$$$$ Money, shortcuts, I know all about it and it waits behind all closed doors. Human behaviour and money is the root of all evil.
And yet we are told on every flight that "our safety is their number one priority". WHAT A JOKE. As the head of the FAA said, the most important mission is "diversity", now we are seeing the results of that as well
If the door transitioned up and out, the bolts didnt exist. The 4 bolts are castle style with locking pins. Loose would not come off, but stay loose. Someone really F'ed up. Must of been quitting time on Friday.
Rip John
This all started with the Boeing Lockheed Martin merger 1997
I am glad Boeing is having a safety committee empowerment discussion for enhanced forward looking management strategies. Bolts, wrenches and torque specifications will not be on the agenda.
😂😂😂😂 sadly true
While botls are missing or perhaps never installed? Then look at the existing (qty. 4) joints which typically has primer in each hole bore. If bolts were installed then the high contact bearing stress would show in the bore and discolor the primer locally. If the primer appears clean, then the bolts may not have been installed during production.
As former aircraft structures mechanic I can relate! The rush, rush, rush environments in those commercial aircraft building facilities hired by Boeing to build their fuselages. Some of their schedules are way too aggressive! They are essentially good paying sweat shops! Then add in self inspections, where you stamp off your own work to speed up the process', so I can say I'm not surprised when I hear about situation like this, because it may be just a few aircraft that slip through the system before they caught the problem or it may be all of those Max 9's. I worked in commercial and Military production facilities, in the Military aircraft facilities the environment is more relaxed, the rush, rush, rush culture is not so aggressive by the management and the quality control department inspect the heck out everything.
Thank you for bringing on an expert to say that doors flying off planes mid-flight is "not a good thing." That's the kind of crucial information only CNN can bring you.
😊
Backyard Bob is very lucky the door didn't land on him.
More like "focused on cutting corners and maximising profits".
Everyone needs to reconsider train travel whenever possible.
Thanks for deregulating safety rules, Repubsies!!
If that were true it would be an industry problem, it's not. Airbus dosen't have this poor QC
What a unique safety feature decompress the cabin and bang you have instant access to the flighdeck, Im sure no terrorists were taking notes! Wow that does not seem too safe!
There should be clips stopping those bolts coming loose.
Did not the bolt have locking nuts? A loose bolt would have always been loose, since install.
Time to check wing and engine bolts. And any other bolt for that matter.
In every step of assy., installers have to sign off on the job using their " bug", a small ink-stamp that identifies the installer. It also indicates the inspector who bought off the job. Start there.
I can't imagine that these bolts are installed without a torque wrench. So the question is why are they becoming loose? Is the plate they screw into bad? Does repeated compression cycles work to loosen the bolts? One aircraft, I could see as a QC issue. But to have so many. I just have to conclude this is a more subtle problem, due to a change in design from previous 737 models. Because previous versions of the aircraft have these same doors.
The same public demanding quality control are the ones complaining the prices are too high for flights.