[dragracer567]

Interesting video by Wendover on how Boeing got to where it is now. Most of us are already familiar with the story, best summarised as ‘Boeing is trying to be a Michelle Star restaurant with a fast food mindset!’

https://youtu.be/URoVKPVDKPU?si=N0degO102Z2AUsl-

[ads11]

Originally Posted by dragracer567

Interesting video by Wendover on how Boeing got to where it is now. Most of us are already familiar with the story, best summarised as ‘Boeing is trying to be a Michelle Star restaurant with a fast food mindset!’

https://Youtu.be/URoVKPVDKPU?si=N0degO102Z2AUsl-

Great to see a Wendover video up - was a bit curious where he was going narratively in the middle but yeah, the whole divested supplier chain model is yet another gift that keeps on giving from that cursed McDonnell Douglas reverse takeover. It's really hard to see how you can make the deep rooted changes necessary while still keeping Wall Street happy. Seems to be a real catch 22 situation.

[volkman10]

Boeing replaces head of 737 Max programme.

Ed Clark, who helped ramp up 737 production in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, is stepping down effective immediately after nearly 18 years at Boeing, the company said on Wednesday. Katie Ringgold succeeds Clark as vice-president and general manager of the 737 program and Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington.

Boeing is also promoting Elizabeth Lund, a long-time engineering and operations leader, to a newly created post that will give her companywide oversight of quality measures. Lund was named senior vice president for quality at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. She will also serve on the plane maker’s executive committee as chair of the company’s quality operations council.

Link:

[ds.raikkonen]

Originally Posted by dragracer567

Interesting video by Wendover on how Boeing got to where it is now. Most of us are already familiar with the story, best summarised as ‘Boeing is trying to be a Michelle Star restaurant with a fast food mindset!’

Was interesting to see how the 787 modular program actually triggered Boeing's slide. And how it exploited its suppliers who believed and revered Boeing! The 787 was an amazing aircraft (I am no expert) from the passenger's POV. Big, tinted window, less noise etc.

[the_skyliner]

The outcome of latest FAA chief visit to Boeing: https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/f...rch+20%2C+2024

“There are issues around the safety culture in Boeing. Their priorities have been focused on production and not on safety and quality. And so, what we are really focused on now is shifting that focus from production to safety and quality,” Whitaker told the NBC show.

So now FAA has to help Boeing understand what the priorities of an aircraft manufacturer should be. Sad state of affairs, really.

Looks like Boeing learned very little from their Max fiasco.

[anjan_c2007]

A former Boeing aerospace engineer, quality manager and whistle-blower John Barnett aged 62 was found dead in his pickup truck in the hotel parking lot in Charleston, South Carolina on March 9, 2024. Boeing workers had warned that whistleblower John Barnett “made powerful enemies” before his alleged suicide, as a puzzling discrepancy on his police report has emerged. He was found with a gunshot wound to the head and a pistol in his hand. Barnett was a quality control engineer who worked for Boeing for 32 years before he retired in 2017.

That same morning he was due to conclude private testimony in a lawsuit against the jet company where he had worked for most of his career. He had levelled serious allegations about quality shortcomings of Boeing airliners citing facts and eyewitness accounts. According to a report by Charleston police, he had extended his stay at the Holiday Inn hotel until March 8 and was caught on surveillance video leaving the hotel that morning.

Employees at the local Boeing plant where Barnett had worked until retiring in 2017 say the whole community is shaken up. One employee, who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity, said workers were skeptical about the cause of Barnett’s death, which has been preliminarily labeled a suicide.

Two years post his retirement, he told the BBC in 2019 that Boeing cut corners by rushing to get its 787 Dreamliner jets off the production line and into service. Barnett gave numerous interviews describing how he had complained internally to the company about what he claimed were serious safety flaws he had detected.

From 2010, he worked as a quality manager at their North Charleston plant in South Carolina, where he worked on the 787 Dreamliner long-haul passenger aircraft.

Since retiring, Mr Barnett was engaged in legal action against his former employer for disparaging his character and hampering his career after being forced to retire for raising issues about the company.

Boeing denies this, claiming that Mr Barnett’s retirement plans were long-standing, and that they had “in no way negatively impacted Mr Barnett’s ability to continue in whatever chosen profession he so wishes”.

In 2019, Mr Barnett shared concerns about his former employer with the BBC, alleging issues with the oxygen system on board the 787 Dreamliner.

The qualified aerospace engineer raised concerns that passengers on board the aircraft could be left without oxygen in case of sudden cabin decompression.

After finding some oxygen bottles were not discharging, Mr Barnett commissioned a test of 300 brand new oxygen systems. He claimed 75 of them – a quarter – did not deploy properly.

He claimed that Boeing had blocked him from looking into the matter further. He then went to the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to complain, but they were unable to substantiate the claim as Boeing had informed them it was working to resolve the issue at the time.

In 2024, Mr Barnett joined other employees in speaking out against the 737 MAX aircraft, which has been subject to several mid-air technical emergencies in recent years. He had said “In my opinion, Boeing needs a reckoning from the top down,” he said. “This is a Boeing issue, this is not a 737 issue”.

The lawsuit makes a number of bombshell claims about Boeing — currently under scrutiny after a series of quality control problems, including a door plug falling off mid-flight — charging they retaliated against Barnett when he tried to raise the alarm about defaults in their manufacturing process.

Barnett said he suffered numerous instances of retaliation after internally reporting the airplane giant’s failure to comply with Federal Aviation Authority safety standards. He had said the company had not taken action, spurring him to go public, out of concern for people’s safety.

His lawyers are challenging the notion that he committed suicide and are calling for a thorough investigation. They say “We need more information about what happened to John,” attorneys Robert Turkewitz and Brian Knowles said in a statement.

The links :-
https://nypost.com/2024/03/20/us-new...-spied-on-him/

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2511711.html

https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/IWQAD5OO

[AltoLXI]

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun steps down amidst firm's safety crisis.

As well as Mr Calhoun, Stan Deal will leave his role as head of Boeing's commercial airlines division immediately. He will be replaced by Stephanie Pope who has spent the past three months working as the Boeing's chief operating officer.

Larry Kellner, the firm's chair will also leave and be replaced by Steve Mollenkopf, the former boss of Qualcomm who has been a board member at Boeing since 2020. He will lead the search for a new chief executive.

Link

[RM Motorsports]

Boeing Took Shortcuts In Building Dreamliner 787 Planes, Alleges Engineer.

Federal aviation authorities are investigating claims by a Boeing engineer that the 787 Dreamliner suffers from assembly defects that threaten safety, US officials said Tuesday.

Attorneys for the whistleblower, Sam Salehpour, accuse the company of putting profit over safety -- and retaliating against him after he raised concerns by "involuntarily" transferring him to the 777 program.

At the 777 program, he raised more issues, for which his attorneys say he was threatened with termination.

"Rather than heeding his warnings, Boeing prioritized getting the planes to market as quickly as possible, despite the known, well-substantiated issues Mr. Salehpour raised," said attorneys Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, who pointed to "critical defects" on nearly 1,500 Boeing planes.

Salehpour has pointed to "shortcuts" in Boeing's assembly processes leading to excessively large gaps between different plane parts that could "ultimately cause a premature fatigue failure without any warning, thus creating unsafe conditions for the aircraft with potentially catastrophic accidents," according to an FAA complaint released by Salehpour's attorneys.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/boei...dtv_topstories

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by RM Motorsports

Boeing Took Shortcuts In Building Dreamliner 787 Planes, Alleges Engineer.

At the 777 program, he raised more issues, for which his attorneys say he was threatened with termination.

Thank you @RM Motorsports for sharing this article. I'm sure it is of interest to many. I'm writing in to share my perspective as it involves flight safety that touches most of us on Team BHP.

All,

I cannot comment on the allegations of Mr. Salehpour or what transpired between him and Boeing. So, we'll set that aside. In automotive language it is like saying today that 2 decades ago a Maruti engineer pointed out design flaws on the Maruti Swift and allegedly got dinged for it. And he is now bringing it up 20 years after lakhs of Swifts have been sold and collectively clocked crores of kms. Boeing bashing is the flavour of the season.

The 787 and even more the 777 have sold in the thousands, they have established a track record that is solid* and both have clocked tens of millions of flying hours. A few 777 have clocked over 100,000 hours. In car language that is like a 2-million mile car - miles not kilometres. The 777 to best of my knowledge did not have teething troubles either.

My message to those readers who fly in these planes as passengers is that these are as safe as any other aircraft. I do not condone the nonsense that has gone on at Boeing and sadly no big heads rolled and no ex-big shots such as Jim McNearney, Alan Mullay etc were asked to refund their bonuses. That has more to do with American corporate culture than with just Boeing.

Request readers to permit me to share my limited view on whistleblowers -- Whistleblowers have a certain value and can sometimes (only at times not always) lead to a real mess brewing. Most of the time it is routine matters or harassment issues that need and should get a quick tactical correction. Often enough the mechanism is misused by employees or vendors to settle scores. This perspective is based on my time when I have chaired the whistle blower committees of the Boards at 6 companies some listed in India and some in USA. Occasionally you really come across gems to pursue and correct a serious trouble. At other times even after the point has been corrected the whistleblower gets married to his/her discovery and simply can't let go long after the issues was solved and sorted - maybe human psychology of clinging to that one moment in the sun.

*in case of the 787 after teething issues were ironed out in the earlier years

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Thank you @RM Motorsports for sharing this article. I'm sure it is of interest to many. I'm writing in to share my perspective as it involves flight safety that touches most of us on Team BHP.

All,

I cannot comment on the allegations of Mr. Salehpour or what transpired between him and Boeing. So, we'll set that aside. In automotive language it is like saying today that 2 decades ago a Maruti engineer pointed out design flaws on the Maruti Swift and allegedly got dinged for it. And he is now bringing it up 20 years after lakhs of Swifts have been sold and collectively clocked crores of kms. Boeing bashing is the flavour of the season.

The 787 and even more the 777 have sold in the thousands, they have established a track record that is solid* and both have clocked tens of millions of flying hours. A few 777 have clocked over 100,000 hours. In car language that is like a 2-million mile car - miles not kilometres. The 777 to best of my knowledge did not have teething troubles either.

My message to those readers who fly in these planes as passengers is that these are as safe as any other aircraft. I do not condone the nonsense that has gone on at Boeing and sadly no big heads rolled and no ex-big shots such as Jim McNearney, Alan Mullay etc were asked to refund their bonuses. That has more to do with American corporate culture than with just Boeing.

*in case of the 787 after teething issues were ironed out in the earlier years

Thanks for your insights. Surely the engineer would be aware of the static rig testing designed to simulate the thousands of lifecycles. Also interesting is the word used by Boeing to describe the allegation. They used "inaccurate" as opposed to "false" . They also stated that FAA has had oversight over the testing and production design processes. But we know FAA's oversight on the Max program has been anything but exemplary. Is there any potential for a flaw to have sneaked through ?

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

But we know FAA's oversight on the Max program has been anything but exemplary.

FAA could not / did not oversee the 737MAX design & testing process not because it is corrupt or incompetent but because it is underfunded for the vast responsibilities it has. A long line of US politicians have kept it underfunded for I'd say 20+ years for reasons I do not understand. That is why they had to depend on Boeing's word on the testing Boeing said it had done. Here Boeing's senior team lied at many levels but no one has been jailed yet. FAA staff, like EASA staff, both of whom I have dealt with extensively are competent straight professionals. I'll add way way better than the DGCA folks I have had to deal with.

Is there any potential for a flaw to have sneaked through ?

Good question. Every flying hour is a test - a live test. After a combined of over 30 million flying hours in almost every climate, geography and airport in the world I think the 787 and 777 have been tested thoroughly. :-)

[itwasntme]

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/10/i...ems/index.html

Great work by Boeing!
Ignore multiple complaints by a whistle-blower and retaliate by moving him to another production line, where he notes further issues. Sounds like what the Soviets would have done had they not shot the fellow with an AA gun in the first place.

@Narayan sir: the allegation is reduced life for these 'impacted' airframes. Any thoughts here?

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/10/i...ems/index.html

Great work by Boeing!
Ignore multiple complaints by a whistle-blower and retaliate by moving him to another production line, where he notes further issues. Sounds like what the Soviets would have done had they not shot the fellow with an AA gun in the first place.

@Narayan sir: the allegation is reduced life for these 'impacted' airframes. Any thoughts here?

This is the same story that @RM Motorsports posted in post number #578. I disagree with the allegation of "reduced airframe hours". The aircraft have been flying around since 1995 for the 777 and 2011 for the 787 and both aircraft have been subjected to thousands of maintenance checks in this time. If indeed this was so it would have shown up by now in some form or some early indicator. It is Boeing bashing time and folks are crawling out of the woodwork IMHO.

In my experience just because someone chooses to call himself a whistleblower and a magazine chooses to publish an article 25 years late does not make his allegations fact or if fact of consequence. I've witnessed too many whistleblowers who misuse the facility to settle scores. Just my opinion, others may differ.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

In my experience just because someone chooses to call himself a whistleblower and a magazine chooses to publish an article 25 years late does not make his allegations fact or if fact of consequence. I've witnessed too many whistleblowers who misuse the facility to settle scores. Just my opinion, others may differ.

If this indeed happens then it is distracting the stakeholders from the real issues at hand and diluting the sanctity of the whistleblower process. Which is also a problem.

[anjan_c2007]

The trouble brewing with Boeing will take long to normalise. More escalation is now evident with the Indian regulator ready to seek a detailed report from Boeing about the recent turn of events. The India based airlines' form a major chunk of Boeing's customers and as on today the issues cannot be brushed under the carpet by the mighty airplane maker.

What Boeing's long, choppy flight into whistleblower hell means for passenger safety
Former Boeing engineering Sam Salehpour’s allegations have once again turned the spotlight on the planemaker’s safety issues. While India’s aviation regulator is expected seek a detailed report from Boeing soon, the US company seems to be in denial mode.

Link:-
https://m.economictimes.com/prime/tr...c532e820381802
(Full news can be viewed by subscribers only: sorry for that)