Recently, Boeing encountered another "safety crisis", and the hatch exploded and fell off during the flight, is the Boeing plane really safe? A hearing in which a former Boeing engineer pointed out a defect in the quality of the aircraft, and the Boeing plane could disintegrate in the air? In the face of public opinion, the CEO announced his resignation, what went wrong within Boeing?
(1) The cabin door falls off during the flight? Are Boeing planes still safe?
On January 5, 2024, shortly after the departure of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 from Portland, Oregon, USA, an unused emergency exit hatch in the rear compartment of the aircraft suddenly burst open and fell. A large hole appeared in one side of the fuselage, causing an instant loss of pressure in the cabin. There were 174 passengers and six crew members on board, but thankfully, there were no casualties.
The day after the accident, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded the Boeing 737 MAX 9 operated by American Airlines or operated within the United States to conduct a comprehensive safety inspection of the aircraft.
A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board revealed that the 737 MAX 9, which was delivered to Alaska, had a serious mistake when it left the Boeing plant, leaving all four bolts needed to install the door plug.
Schematic diagram of the location of the missing bolts
In response, the U.S. Transportation Safety Board said the accident was a mistake. But this is not the first time for Boeing that such a mistake has occurred. In December 2023, Boeing called on airlines to inspect the rudder of the plane after a missing bolt was found on one of the planes. Boeing also said it was out of "extreme caution." According to Boeing, is this "drop-off door incident" considered an imprudent part of Alaska Airlines?
Wang Yanan (aviation expert of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, editor-in-chief of "Aviation Knowledge"): "The installation of bolts must be a very important part of the operation process, but the workers actually missed it. According to Boeing's production process, there must be an inspection process for such an important link after the final assembly is completed, why is the inspection also missing? So this problem is definitely a low-level serious mistake, it is not a problem that is very complex or needs to be solved by advanced technical means. ”
It's a bit incomprehensible that such a low-level mistake could happen to an established aircraft company like Boeing. However, Alaska Airlines' "drop-off door incident" is not an isolated case, and in just half a month, there have been no less than 8 aircraft failures of varying degrees around the world. These include cracking of the cockpit glass of the aircraft, running off the runway for no reason, engine fires, and so on. In October 2018 and March 2019, two Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashes claimed 346 lives, raising questions about Boeing's safety culture around the world. Are Boeing planes really unsafe?
Chen Jianguo (Senior Captain): "On the whole, the safety of the Boeing aircraft is very reliable. In terms of the overall accident rate, it is also decreasing year by year. ”
Although historically, the accident rate of Boeing aircraft is decreasing. But what is even more worrying now is the emergence of "whistleblowers" within Boeing, revealing that the company has many problems in the aircraft manufacturing process.
(2) The "whistleblower" reported that Boeing has a long history of safety risks?
On April 17, local time, the U.S. Senate Permanent Investigation Subcommittee held a hearing on Boeing's safety production shortcomings. Four witnesses testified in court and revealed the flaws in the manufacture of Boeing's aircraft.
In his opening remarks at the hearing, former Boeing engineer Sam Salehpool, who told him about the serious safety risks associated with Boeing aircraft: "I have serious concerns about the safety of the Boeing 787 and 777 airliners, and they are producing defective aircraft. ”
Sam Salehpur is known as the "whistleblower" of Boeing aircraft on the Internet, and it is he who has pushed the safety of Boeing aircraft to a new level of heat. Because the question goes straight to the dream airliner that Boeing has always been proud of: the Boeing 787.
The Dreamliner 787 is a wide-body passenger aircraft produced by Boeing and developed by Boeing Civil Aircraft. In August 2011, the aircraft was certified by the Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Agency. In September of that year, it was delivered to All Nippon Airways and began commercial flights.
But this supposed star-studded Boeing blockbuster product was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration in January 2013 due to battery problems. In 2014, Al Jazeera conducted an undercover investigation into the incident and produced a documentary, "Boeing 787: Broken Dreams", which exposed various problems in the production of Boeing aircraft. Among them are the poor quality of workers in the Boeing aircraft production workshop, and the lack of safety supervision.
There is also a "whistleblower" who is earlier than Sam Salehpur, and his name is John Barnett. Before retiring in 2017, he spent 32 years with Boeing, most recently as a quality control manager at Boeing's North Carolina plant.
On November 6, 2019, John Barnett broke the news to the BBC that in 2016, he found that the emergency oxygen system of Boeing's new Dreamliner 787 was defective, with a failure rate of 25%, which means that 1/4 of the system may not work properly. When a crisis occurs, passengers are at risk of brain damage or even death.
In addition, in an interview with other media, he also mentioned that since 2012, Boeing has had serious quality control problems: "The reason why I am worried about Boeing's quality control can be traced back to 2012 when Boeing began to cancel inspection operations in the production process. ”
In an interview with the BBC, John Barnett also broke the news that Boeing has a shoddy problem.
Boeing, of course, denies all of these allegations.
On March 9 of this year, John Barnett was found dead in his car before preparing to testify about a lawsuit against Boeing, which local law enforcement said had committed suicide. But on March 14, a recording of John Barnett giving a phone interview to a friend circulated, in which John Barnett told a friend: "If I kill myself one day, don't believe it." ”
Sam Salehpool, the current "whistleblower," also said he had been threatened by Boeing, but fortunately he ended up standing at the hearing. In another testimony of Sam Salehpool, he raised a very detailed question of the quality of the Boeing 787's production, a consequence that would lead directly to the disintegration of the aircraft.
To corroborate Sam Salehpool's claim, we found an article titled "New Boeing 787 Repair Details Reveal Serious Gap Quality Issues" published by a media outlet called Aviation Week on December 7, 2022.
The Boeing 787 program has faced a variety of problems since 2019, such as surface quality defects, gaskets, clearances and over-inserted components, which is why it has repeatedly delayed delivery, the article said.
Among these reasons, the article focuses on the structural quality of the aircraft. Initial structural problems with the Boeing 787 were identified in the vertical tail, but as Boeing stepped up its fuselage scrutiny, non-conformities and non-compliance were found from the rear section 48 all the way to the section 41 nose assembly.
In April 2020, the aircraft was found to have an excessive gap in the surface profile between the two rear tail sections 47 and 48, and on this point, "whistleblower" Sam Salehpoole also made a related statement at the hearing: "The gap is so small that Boeing's public relations team likes to call it as thin as a 'hair'." When you're working at an altitude of 35,000 feet, a gap as thin as a 'hair' is a matter of life and death. ”
The Aviation Week article provides a diagram where we can see where sections 47 and 48 are located, which can clearly help us understand the problem.
So how much damage can a hair-like crevice do?
Wang Yanan: "Today's civil aircraft is a high-precision combination, for example, the fuselage section of a civil aircraft is composed of several segments, which must be very accurately fastened together. If there is a deviation in the combination of components, it can be a big problem. ”
Even a gap as small as a strand of hair can cause big trouble. It may even lead to the aerial disintegration of the aircraft, as Sam Salehpur said.
(3) The CEO announced his resignation, what went wrong within Boeing?
In this round of public opinion whirlpool, Boeing's employment and management issues have also become a major focus of criticism. In March, Boeing announced that its chief executive, Dave Calhoun, would resign at the end of the year.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun
Calhoun was named CEO of Boeing in 2020. At the time, Boeing was experiencing its worst public confidence crisis in its 100-year history after two fatal crashes of 737 MAX aircraft in 2018 and 2019.
Calhoun, an accountant by training, has put financial discipline first in his four years at the helm of Boeing, according to CNN. But when it comes to his lifestyle as a CEO, that frugality is thrown out of the blues.
In a Boeing regulatory filing disclosed by CNN, four executives, including Calhoun, were given an additional $500,000 worth of private jet travel expenses, which were recorded as official travel. Over three years, Calhoun alone spent $979,000 on personal air travel.
Calhoun took office at a time when Boeing was saddled with more than $30 billion in debt due to the grounding of the 737 MAX and the coronavirus pandemic, and during his tenure, Boeing faced multiple FAA scrutiny and fewer aircraft deliveries. According to data given by Reuters, Boeing's share price has fallen by nearly 43%, while rival Airbus has increased its market value by more than 26% over the same period.
But can all these kinds of problems within Boeing be caused by just one Calhoun? An article titled "Suicide Mission: How Boeing Treats Those Who Remember How to Build Airplanes" is considered to be a comprehensive and truthful analysis of Boeing's internal problems.
This article was published on March 28, 2024, after Boeing whistleblower, former engineer John Barnett, committed a suspected suicide in the car. The most criticized in the article is Jim McNanny, one of the former Boeing CEOs. Jim McNanny lacks good leadership skills, rejects people who care only about the integrity of the aircraft and not about the stock, and even pushes the production and quality control of Boeing aircraft to suppliers, the author says.
It was also during his tenure that the Boeing Dreamliner 787 was born, and then quickly walked off the altar. According to media reports, Boeing, under the leadership of Jim McNanny, has become a financial company first and an aviation company second.
In a recent letter to Boeing employees, Calhoun called the Alaska Airlines "Drop-Off Gate" a watershed moment for Boeing, the once-glittering aerospace giant facing the strongest accusations in history. Whether Boeing will survive is still difficult to determine.
Producer: Liang Yin
Choreographer: Yang Xinye
Editor: Yu Erya Zhang Xining