Boeing jets have made headlines for all the wrong reasons
from deadly crashes to horrific accidents. It started with Indonesia in 2018 when Lion Air Flight 610 crashed off the coast killing 189 people in October 2018. Unfortunately Boeing
737 Max aircraft crashed in Ethiopia in
March 2019 killing 157 people a few minutes after taking off en-route to
Nairobi.
As if that is not enough, another Boeing 737 skid off the runaway at Jacksonville Military
Base into Florida River. These
occurrences cannot be coincidences.
It has emerged that Boeing 737 management knew their planes
were faulty but never took the matter seriously. An audio recording of a meeting between American Airlines Pilots’ Union and Boeing held in November 2018
has surfaced to reveal the corporate negligence of the company.
In it are voices of pilots confronting Boeing about the new
features that may have caused two disheartening accidents in Indonesia and
Ethiopia.
Dallas Morning News in the US was the first to report about the recording.
One pilot is heard saying, “We flat out deserve to know
what is on our airplanes, ” a statement the official agrees with.
Another pilot adds , “These guys didn’t even know the
damn system was on the airplane — nor did anybody else.”
According to CBS News Boeing vice president Mike Sinnett claimed what happened to Lion Air was
once-in-a-lifetime type scenario.
“I don’t know that understanding this system would’ve
changed the outcome on this. In a million miles, you’re going to maybe fly this
airplane, maybe once you’re going to see this, ever. So we try not to overload
the crews with information that’s unnecessary so they actually know the
information we believe is important,” the official said.
The pilots in the room were not satisfied with that answer.
“We’re the last line of defense to being in that smoking hole. And we need
the knowledge,” one pilot said.
Boeing told the pilots it would make software changes,
perhaps in as little as six weeks, but didn’t want to hurry it.
“We want to make sure we’re fixing the right
things,” the official said. “That’s the important thing. To make sure
we’re fixing the right things. We don’t want to rush and do a crappy job of
fixing the right things, and we also don’t want to fix the wrong things.”
That fix was still in development when the second 737 Max
crashed in March leading to the worldwide grounding of the plane.
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