Boeing's Downfall [Greed Over Safety] feat. Mentour Pilot

Boeing was once seen as one of the best engineering firms in the world. Today they're plagued with scandals and constantly put profits before the lives of people. What went wrong? In this episode, we find out.

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Producer: Dagogo Altraide
Writers: Laura Woods, Dagogo Altraide
Editors: Brayden Laffrey, Dagogo Altraide

[MentourPilot]

It was fun to take part! Great production.

[ThompterSHunson]

_"When one door closes, another opens."_

~ Boeing.

[Sleepy_joe]

From "If it's not Boeing I'm not going" to "If it's Boeing I'm not going" we all grew up.

[DiabolikalFollikles]

"Employees are afraid of retaliation when making complaints." Chilling that a Boeing whistle blower was recently found deceased under questionable circumstances.

[kellymoses]

Putting MBAs in charge of any company where they don't actually understand how the technology works always leads to disaster.

[MattC-ewkr]

My dad was an engineer at Boeing for 47 years. I grew up with the company and watching the changed taking place. I remember as a kid, hearing the name Harry Stonecipher from my dad with absolute disdain. He and other engineers were basically told by Boeing leadership that the problem with engineers is that they don't understand business. My dad was forced to retire back in 2015. He refuses to help Boeing these days.

[tryarunm]

Heart breaking. I remember in the 1970s the 707 flights Lusaka-Nairobi-Bombay and back. We felt so safe and thrilled on 4-engine jetliners. Now we're travelling by train. Imprison the honchos of finance and engineering and the CEO. No trial required.

[falcon]

When booking a flight always ask what Aircraft you are booked on.

[hydronpowers]

Uh, the Boeing whistleblower is dead...

[TheDavpot]

i have worked in military aviation my entire life and the saying I always remembered from a young airman to now retired decades later, "why is there never time to do it right, but always time to do it over?" Boeing like our world of dismay boils down to simple GREED

[anadverb]

So much better than any other documentary I’ve seen on the subject. My now deceased brother-in-law headed the team at Goodrich that wrote the technical manuals for the Dreamliner. He always said he would never fly a Dreamliner… the potential issues were too numerous and without solutions. He did not do the manuals for the 737 Max, but he’d heard that new software was potentially problematic.

[GooglePlusPages]

A couple of issues here:

At 7:45, Capt. Petter explains that MCAS moves the vertical stabilizer…incorrect. The vertical stabilizer is part of the rudder which controls the yaw axis. The correct term is the elevator which is part of the horizontal stabilizer which controls pitch authority.

Prior to that however, Petter suggests that there were no issues with the flight characteristics of the MAX aircraft and that it was a stable design…questionable.

Perhaps from a pilot’s viewpoint, but from a regulatory perspective, the MAX should never have been certified to begin with.

Moving the larger engines forward was only one impact of the redesign. The other was to change the camber of the wing to accommodate the larger diameter engine nacelles in the re-engined MAX. This new shape of the wing changed the flying characteristics of the MAX dramatically from the previous models of 737 aircraft. In fact, it made the design negatively stable in certain angles of attack necessitating the MCAS modification. This is expressly contrary to the FAA’s Aircraft Certification protocols for Air Transport category aircraft requiring them to be POSITIVELY stable in all unusual attitudes expected during normal operations.

The MAX should never have been certified as a Transport Category aircraft AT ALL due to these modifications.

Read The Challenger Launch Decision by Diane Vaughn to get a good primer on the concept of the “normalization of deviance” and compare to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board report that cited the very same financial and political pressures exerted on NASA that derogated safety.

In between those reports, as a palate cleanser, I would suggest reading Broken Rails by Christian Wolmar that provides a scathing account of how the privatization of the British Rail system led to disastrous consequences.

All of this carnage could have been anticipated and avoided had safety been given its appropriate place in the top priorities of these endeavors rather than as lip service by the bean counting flunkies at Boeing.

[thatsawesome]

There is one interesting quotes "you can teach business to engineer, but can't teach engineering to businessman"

[mcarrusa]

Letting any company regulate themselves, be it Aerospace, Pharma or Agri is insane, and a great example of how stupid we are, to allow this to happen.

[albertvillalobos]

I worked for a company that made turbine blades for airplane engines and its inline with the video. MFG company was aquired by private equity firm who stopped re investing in operations and allowed facility to fail into disrepair. The manufacturing process could no longer produce parts within spec but a culture of fear and blaming lower level employees meant that nothing would interrupt production. Common practice included repeatedly processing the same part thru inspection and changing the serial number for parts that couldn't pass. I left that company about 4 years ago thinking it's only a matter of time before it comes down on them.

[karenm]

I can remember listening to a podcast more than 10 years ago when a pilot said he would never set foot in the 777 due to safety concerns. Imagine booking a ticket based on the aircraft rather than cost, convenience or airline preference?

[jopa]

As a retired Boeing systems engineer from 1987 to 2010, I witness the glory days of Boeing and the emergent new Boeing. During those early days, the Company was truly run by engineers, and many were old-timers who didn't cut any corners. The words I heard the most throughout my tenure with the Company were "Airworthiness and Quality Engineering and Assurance." Meetings were held on these topics seemingly on a daily basis.

[nikolaivista]

R.I.P. John Barnett!!! It is a shame the world never got to see you testify in front of Congress!! You will never be forgotten!!

[mzansime]

This is the best, most throrough and informative doccie I've seen on Boeing. Thank you for your amazing research and production skills. And for including insightful input from Mentour Pilot. 👌🏼🧡

[dpie]

Airbus CEO=Engineer
Boeing CEO=Accountant.
Fact!