Former high-level Boeing managers and engineers have issued a startling warning for fliers to avoid the plane’s troubled 737 Max 9 jet as the model once again takes to the skies.
“I would never fly a Max plane,” one-time Boeing senior manager Ed Pierson candidly told the Los Angeles Times of the model that recently saw a door plug come off mid-air on an Alaskan Airlines flight.
“I’ve worked in the factory where it was built, and I saw the stress the workers were under to rush the plane out the door.”
Joe Jacobsen, a former Boeing engineer who also worked at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), issued a similar warning, saying it was “premature” for airlines, including Alaska, to resume flying the jet.
“I would tell my family to avoid Max,” Jacobsen told the LA Times, claiming that his time at the company made him realize that profits came before quality control.
“I’ll tell everyone really.”
The Boeing plane was temporarily grounded for a federal inspection earlier this month after an Alaska Airlines plane was forced to make an emergency landing when a part exploded mid-flight — ripping off a young passenger’s shirt.
President and CEO David Calhoun acknowledged a few days later that a “quality exodus” had occurred, telling employees: “This event cannot happen again.”
On Wednesday, he sent an email to employees acknowledging that “research” from the accident “makes it clear that we have more work to do” to “strengthen our safety and quality processes.”
Pierson said that he had “tried to get them shut down” even before 2018, when a Lion Air plane crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 189 people on board.
In September, Pierson’s Foundation for Aviation Safety also published a study that found airlines filed more than 1,300 reports of safety problems on Boeing Max 8 and Max 9 planes with the FAA.
Meanwhile, Jacobsen said that the plane manufacturer had been “trying to maximize profits” and “go after the lowest bidder” for years.
“For the last 20 years, they’ve gone in a constant direction toward financial engineering instead of technical engineering,” Jacobsen said, arguing that the company was essentially playing a game of one-shots where it would only solve a problem once. a problem started to arise.
Ed Pierson, a former senior manager at Boeing, said he would “absolutely not fly a Max plane.” KIRO News 7
The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to release its initial findings about the Alaska Airlines near disaster in the coming days.
The FAA has allowed airlines to once again begin flying Boeing Max aircraft following the “complete [and] enhanced review.”
“Let me be clear: This will not be a return to business as usual for Boeing,” Administrator Mike Whitaker said in a statement last week.
“The quality assurance issues we have seen are unacceptable. That’s why we have more boots on the ground carefully scrutinizing and monitoring production and manufacturing activities.”
Alaska Airlines officials said it will fly the Max 9s “only after a thorough inspection is completed and each aircraft is deemed airworthy in accordance with FAA requirements.”
About half of the inspections were completed by the end of last Monday, airline officials said, and the first Max 9 took off from Seattle, Wash. on Friday and landed in San Diego, Cali. about an hour later.
United also began flying its Max 9 fleet on Saturday morning, with flights from Newark, NJ to Las Vegas, Nev.
But Jacobsen, a former FAA engineer, said the agency’s decision to allow the planes to fly again was “premature,” noting that he and other safety advocates have sounded the alarm about numerous safety issues on both the Max 8 and Max 9 planes for years.
In fact, the FAA warned pilots last year to limit the use of the anti-icing system to just five minutes, after a serious flaw was discovered in its engine that could cause debris to break off and “result in loss of control of the aircraft. .”
Boeing applied for an engineering waiver from the FAA to exempt the Max 7 from a lineup that would need to change its anti-ice system, but withdrew its petition on Monday.
The company is now expected to release its fourth quarter earnings in a call to investors on Wednesday. Its share price has fallen about 19% since the on-air explosion on January 5.
In his email to employees Wednesday, Boeing CEO Calhoun noted “difficult and direct conversations with our customers, regulators and lawmakers” that were “disappointed.”
“We have taken important steps over the last few years to strengthen our safety and quality processes, but this accident clearly shows that we have more work to do,” he admitted.
“This increased observation – whether from ourselves, from our regulators, or from others – will make us better,” he told his staff.
“We have a serious challenge ahead of us – but I know this team is up to the task.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
