Boeing: digs a deeper 737-MAX hole & American Airlines

The news about the Boeing 737 MAX goes from bad, to awful.

First up, American Airlines has extended its suspension of the plane from its flight schedules through until June 2020.

Secondly, even more, damning internal communications from within Boeing about the plane and the need for simulator training has been discovered.

Remember Lion Air was one of the airlines that suffered a catastrophic crash of the Boeing 737-MAX.

Lion Air

It turns out that Lion Air had been asking for training and someone in Boeing decided that if they capitulated to this request, then the flood gates of other airlines with the same request might open. The choice words from the Boeing Chief Technical Pilot are:

‘I am concerned that if [redacted] chooses to require a Max simulator for its pilots beyond what all other regulators are requiring that it will be creating a difficult and unnecessary training burden for your airline, as well as potentially establish a precedent in your region for other Max customers.’

Boeing Chief Technical Pilot

Another choice quote from another Boeing employee is:

‘Now friggin Lion Air might need a sim to fly the MAX, and maybe because of their own stupidity. I’m scrambling trying to figure out how to unscrew this now! idiots,’

Rules for what you write

Which just goes to prove that you should never write something that you would blush at if it was on the front page of the Tele (Telegraph, a gutter newspaper in Australia owned by Rupert Murdoch), or as another friend of mine says:

‘never write anything you would be embaressed to read to your grandmother’

. . . and another thing!

If that’s not enough to outrage you, try this for size . . .

The new CEO for Boeing has a clause in his remuneration agreement that he will pocket US$7 million if/when he gets the 737-MAX back in the air.

So if he can cut more corners with regulators, and compromises safety again, he will be rewarded. Did I hear someone say ‘conflict of interest’?

2PAXfly Takeout

How about his remuneration agreement reward him if there is no further safety incident or loss of life that can be remotely associated with the bad design of hardware of software, or lack of pilot training for a full 10 years before he gets that little bonus?