A US campaign group has accused Boeing of concealing information about electrical problems on a plane that later crashed.
The Foundation for Aviation Safety claimed the aircraft, which went down in Ethiopia in 2019, had suffered a number of issues, including an “uncommanded roll” at low altitude.
The organisation said more than 1,000 planes currently flying could potentially be at risk of electrical failures as a result of production problems.
The foundation has published a number of documents on its website, which it says are build records for the aircraft involved in the Ethiopian accident, leaked by Boeing employees.
The documents, which are highly technical, set out problems encountered during the construction process.
***Here’s a link to the documents … https://www.foundationforaviationsafety.org/max-documents-august-2024
One of the worst parts of the saga is that Boeing used to be a paragon of engineering excellence. I’m not saying they were perfect, or that sketchy shit didn’t happen sometimes (this is an American corporation, after all), but by and large, their business model was “build outstanding planes, and they will sell themselves”.
And then the McDD acqui-merger happened in the 90s, and the finance and business types took over, and upper management started nickel-and-dimeing fucking everything. 3 or so decades of that sort of leadership has put the company where it is today - fighting serious systemic quality and safety issues on the 737MAX, 787, and even the Starliner space capsule they’re trying to get certified right now.
My mom worked for McDD (a long time ago) but in the DoD land. She’s been appalled at all this, specifically because her work revolved on identification of electronic failures in aircraft.
But, she’s also unsurprised. An Air Force fighter pilot is far more valuable than a plane full of nobodies, and about the time she left, cost of failure no longer included loss of life in risk assessments for commercial aircraft.