On the afternoon of January 5, 2024, an Alaska Airlines flight 1282 from Portland, USA to Ontario, California took off only 6 minutes after the fuselage was blown up. The plane immediately lost pressure, the oxygen mask slipped off, and the scene was chaotic for a while.
Is it the resurgence of terrorists? No, it looks more like a door drop. Strangely, there are no emergency exits at all, only a window, and the seats next to them are next to them. Fortunately, seat 26A next to the blast site was not occupied at the time, and the loss of pressure only caused many small objects to be sucked out of the machine. The pilot was very calm and immediately contacted the tower, saying that "there was an emergency" and that he needed to return immediately. The plane then landed successfully and everyone returned safely, except for one person who needed medical treatment, but it was fine.
The airline provided passengers with drinks and water, as well as a flight to Ontario the next day (just ask the passengers about the psychological shadow area). Shockingly, this is a new aircraft that only left the factory in November last year, and it has only been in operation for two months. Alaska Airlines, which was not worried, urgently grounded all 65 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft pending further safety checks. The Federal Aviation Administration (F.A.A.A.), which was not worried, followed by grounding certain Boeing 737 Max9 aircraft for safety checks (involving 171 aircraft worldwide).
Boeing Plane Accidents?
Boeing remains the world's largest aircraft manufacturer and one of the world's largest manufacturers of civil and military aircraft, operating the U.S. space station and space shuttle, and Boeing is also the largest U.S. exporter, ranking 48th in the world's top 500. More than 10,000 of its 737 series have been produced, which is unmatched by anyone to this day. Including freighters, Boeing accounts for more than 50% of the world's commercial aircraft in service. Boeing leather is durable, spare parts are abundant and relatively cheap, and people who can fly and repair are the easiest to find.
In the past, Boeing was synonymous with safety, and there was once a saying in the United States that "I won't sit on a passenger plane if it's not Boeing." Many heads of state use Boeing aircraft as special aircraft. There are 747, there are 777, there are 787, there are many 737s. However, in the late 90s, when Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas and McDonnell Douglas president became CEO, everything changed (especially Airbus). Boeing pays more attention to costs, profits, and stock prices, and spends far more time on Wall Street than factories, constantly cutting costs and laying off employees for the sake of profits, causing grassroots workers to suffer. In their eyes, there was no difference between building an airplane and building a dishwasher, and Boeing began to become a financially driven company.
Everyone knows that there are more than 100,000 parts involved in an aircraft, and most of these parts are put together by screws. Who still doesn't know how to screw it? If you're wrong, there are strict rules on how to screw it and how hard you need to do it. And the wrench that screws the aircraft is not the same as the ordinary wrench, it has an electronic torsion device that can display the torque of the screw. For a skilled technician, even if you close your eyes and don't look at it, you can still tighten the screws just right with your hand. But if it is an unskilled technician, it is likely to be loosened for a while, tightened for a while, and come back a few times, and the part will be scrapped directly. The U.S. Aviation Administration identified the problem with Boeing in 2019 and asked them to remeasure the screw torques on all models.
It is impossible for Boeing to rework, because there are so many screws involved in an airplane, how many manpower are needed to re-inspect it, and all the materials have to be replaced. In 2020, there were eight Boeing 787 aircraft, and there were also varying degrees of cockpit glass cracking. It was later found out that the reasons for the cracking of the cockpit glass were, first, that the glass glue was unqualified and the strength was not enough; second, the technique of beating the glass glue was not delicate enough, resulting in uneven force on the glass (this flying door incident was not ruled out by man-made circumstances). Boeing's internal data shows that the quality of Boeing aircraft assembled overseas is significantly better than that of those assembled in the United States. The quality of Boeing's overseas employees is much higher than that of local employees.
Boeing reflects the "dilemma" of American manufacturing
The first generation 737 was born in the 60s of the last century, more than 50 years ago, Boeing 737, in fact, is an excellent product, the failure rate is very low, but no matter how excellent the product, it has been 50 years, from the first generation 737, to the current fourth generation of 737MAX, the model of this aircraft has not changed. In order to save costs, Boeing did not change the model of the 737 and did not change the aerodynamic layout, but directly went to the new engine LEAP with high bypass ratio, which has the advantage of high thrust and fuel efficiency. How nice is it that you don't need to modify the structure of the aircraft, you can get a new engine, and you can save fuel?
For the 737 fuselage, the new engine is too large, which leads to problems with the overall aerodynamic layout of the aircraft, which affects the flight attitude of the aircraft, and the aircraft will stall due to excessive elevation angles. So, in order to make up for this mistake, Boeing added an "intelligent control" system to the aircraft, that is, MACS. Boeing 737MAX8 also installed a "angle of attack sensor" on the side of the nose, under normal circumstances, if the nose of the aircraft is pushed up by the engine, there is a possibility of a "stall" state, then the MCAS system will control the nose to automatically press down, Boeing believes that the problem can be solved by program.
If this "angle of attack sensor" fails, and the sensor's reading exceeds a certain range, the flight control computer will think that the aircraft is about to "roll over" again, so it activates the MCAS and forcibly presses the nose down, in this process, the captain can not turn off the MCAS intelligent system, and can only keep pulling up the nose, the more you pull up, the more the flight control computer thinks that you are going to "roll over", so it presses the nose down. There is a serious logical error in the design of this product, the flight control computer completely relies on sensor readings, not the pilot's judgment, and does not issue an alarm, but through MCAS to seize the control of the aircraft's elevation angle and force the nose of the aircraft, which makes the pilot lose the ability to save himself at a critical moment.
On October 29, 2018, a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX8 aircraft crashed in Indonesia, killing all 189 passengers and crew. Before taking over the 737 Max, Lion Air cautiously asked Boeing if it needed additional pilot training, and Boeing's reply was absolutely not (because it would cost a lot of money). Boeing staff even ridiculed Lion Air in an internal communication that it was "stupid enough to want pilots to undergo simulation training" and claimed that it had already used "Jedi-like mind control" and that no one needed to do simulation training.
Less than five months later, on March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines' Boeing 737 MAX8 crashed again, leaving 157 people alive, including eight Chinese citizens. The two accidents are actually very similar, the pilots actually identified the problem before the disaster happened, and worked hard to solve it until the last minute, the Indonesian Airlines pilot desperately pulled the nose up more than 20 times, and the Ethiopian Airlines pilot decided to return to the plane as soon as possible, but in the end he was unable to return to the sky. Just 30 minutes after evidence of the crash caused by the MACS was found at the site of Ethiopian Airlines, US President Donald Trump urgently announced the grounding of 737 Max-related aircraft: all 737 Max flights to designated bases.
Boeing's assembly plant in North Charleston was newly formed to assemble the Boeing 787 model, which is known as the Dream Model, so the North Charleston plant is also known as Boeing's Dream Factory. However, due to the poor quality of employees, uncontrolled management, and quality problems, the North Charleston plant is now known as a nightmare factory. On April 20, 2019, the New York Times broke the news on the front page, interviewing more than a dozen current and former employees, and found that Boeing tends to focus more on production speed than quality. Some employees have repeatedly reported quality problems in production to Boeing's senior management, but they have never been properly addressed. Joseph Clayton, a skilled worker at the factory, even said he often found dangerous debris near the power lines under the cockpit: "I told my wife that I never considered flying on these planes." ”
On September 16, 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives established an investigative team released an investigation report on the 737 MAX aircraft accident after 18 months of investigation. The investigation report determined that the two crashes were caused by a series of serious mistakes by Boeing and the FAA, both of which were responsible for the crashes. Boeing deliberately concealed the problem, and the FAA was seriously inadequate, "and gambled the safety of the public's lives during the critical period between the two air crashes."
If the United States wants to revive the manufacturing industry, the biggest problem is no longer technology, nor money, but people. For the United States, which has been deindustrialized for decades, there is a serious shortage of technician talent, and management sacrifices safety and quality for performance......
The predicament that Boeing is facing today also reminds us that if a country wants to develop, high-tech talents are indispensable, and at the same time, we cannot ignore the training of technicians. Screwing may seem simple and inconspicuous, but it supports the façade of the enterprise and the prosperity of the country.