Alaska Airlines CEO: We found 'many' loose bolts on our Max 9 planes following near-disaster
Alaska Airlines CEO: We found 'many' loose bolts on our Max 9 planes following near-disaster
"I'm angry," Ben Minicucci said. "This happened to Alaska Airlines. It happened to our guests and happened to our people."
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Getting these planes from the factory with loose bolts is pretty inexcusable. Boeing's really fallen far. Kind of crazy that the airline has to go double check that the brand new plane they got from the manufacturer is actually put together properly.
I have known Boeing workers, I called them friends. My friends would tell me how stressful each bolt and rivet can be. Like you have to sign off on all your work, every screw. I don't know what that environment is like now, but in years past those workers took high pride in their work. And the executives were the ones that caused the problems with their work.
An article I read about it said that they outsourced it to another company, then that company fired all their experienced workers during covid. So the answer to it and everything is short sighted greed.
For a change
Yaya. I feel like a pretty dramatic shift in how Boeing designs, builds, and signs off on things really has to come from the top first
I've heard that the board of directors got rid of a lot of the old executive team, that was made up of people that had worked as engineers and knew how to build an airplane, and brought in people that instead knew how to maximize profit and reduce costs.
Tale as old as Jack Welch’s first day at GE
GE builds bombs, Boeing builds planes that could plow into the ground... either way, they're trying to kill people.
Yes, but GE, under the leadership of Jack Welch was the pioneer of the “shareholder profits are the only thing that matters” brand of capitalism in the post WWII era. Prior to Welch GE and most American companies during that time were prioritizing what their company produced, attempted to innovate, and treated their workers with some dignity. Certainly not perfect as foreign exploitation was a major leg propping it up but a far cry from where we are today.
It's all subcontracted out now to limit liability, and the workers are understaffed
The FAA is one of the few agencies that still has teeth. They will likely hold Boeing's feet to the fire because the buck stops with them. I worked for a smaller aircraft manufacturer, and if we outsourced parts that failed, saying "oh it was the other company's fault" would not be a valid excuse for the FAA. There would still be investigations into our practices, questions about why we didn't have adequate inspections to verify the parts when they came in, and reviews into our vendor vetting processes. Any fines or disciplinary action would fall on us, not just the negligent outside company. Because at the end of the day, if we hired a negligent company that produced inferior parts, then WE were being negligent.
That said, bigger companies have a lot of connections and sway at the FAA and can do a lot that smaller companies can't. But with all the repeated issues and bad press, I'm leaning towards Boeing getting raked over the coals.
There are only two government agencies you should never fuck with; the IRS and the FAA. The FDA used to be on that list, but they've fallen a bit to regulatory capture in recent years.