Boing, boing.

[JohnD]

"A 737 Max jet left a Boeing factory missing four bolts designed to secure a door panel that blew off in mid-flight last month, according to a preliminary report by a US regulator.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s report on Tuesday is the first official account of how the door plug could have fallen out of the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines plane 16,000 feet over Oregon on January 5. The incident has raised questions about manufacturing and safety processes at Boeing and its supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which builds the Max fuselages.

The NTSB said that “four bolts that prevent upward movement of the [door] plug were missing” before the plug detached from the plane.

According to the report, the fuselage arrived at Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington, in late August 2023. An inspection there uncovered five damaged rivets adjacent to the door plug that later blew out.

In order for a team from Spirit to replace the rivets, the door plug was opened in September, according to the report. A photo shared via text message by Boeing employees after the rivet work showed the door plug later closed again without three of its bolts, while the location of the fourth bolt was obscured in the photo, according to the NTSB."

FT.com

 

[Odds]

It's shocking to see this problem still exists in the industry - since a BOAC aircraft popped its rivets in midair on a flight in the early 60s they've been the cause of so many accidents. Alaska Airways, i think, has one of the worst safety records of them all in regard to aircraft maintennce. A multi-million dollar aircraft brought down by a cracked bolt that can easily be replaced for a buck or two is unacceptable.

 

[gas112]

Boeing have a few production bases not that long ago airliines where starting to refuse planes that were built at their north charleston plant due to the amount of safety issues involved

 

[Odds]

Other problems keep cropping up, with Boeing planes a common denominator: The failure of a Boeing 737 plane that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had intended to fly on. The wheel on the nose of a Boeing-made Delta plane falling off right before takeoff. A faulty anti-icing system that could cause the engine to break apart if pilots don’t remember to turn it off after five minutes. Misdrilled holes. “Loose bolts” — a pair of words one never wants to hear in relation to their plane — that are peeling back the curtain on decades of safety lapses and costly legal violations at Boeing. The company declined to provide a comment for this story but pointed to the measures it had taken since the Alaska Airlines flight.

How Boeing put profits over [email protected]

 

[ellal]

Airbus are more heavily regulated than Boeing...

Airbus have reputedly a better safety record than Boeing...

Join the dots!

Personally I prefer Airbus aircraft as they feel better built, and seem to be quieter.

 

[Odds]

Airbus are more heavily regulated than Boeing...

Airbus have reputedly a better safety record than Boeing...

Join the dots!

Personally I prefer Airbus aircraft as they feel better built, and seem to be quieter.

Some airlines don't have any Airbus in their fleet and you don't really have any say on the aircraft which takes you to that luxury apartment in Benidorm for a weekend pi$$up. Pick your seat with care: it may be the best decision you ever make.

 

[ellal]

Some airlines don't have any Airbus in their fleet and you don't really have any say on the aircraft which takes you to that luxury apartment in Benidorm for a weekend pi$$up. Pick your seat with care: it may be the best decision you ever make.

I would have thought most people going on such a sad trip/destination would be going with Easyjet...

They only use Airbus aircraft.

Ryanair use mainly Boeing...

Another reason not to fly with them

 

[Odds]

Yeah; and who wants to be sat next to Johnny Vegas for more than five minutes?

The problem lies with Corporate greed - as usual.
Cutting costs. Cutting staff. Cutting wages.
Cutting lives short.

Sub-contractors weaken the quality control for components used in these aircraft making them much less safer than they should be.

 

[motorbiking]

Or a bunch of muppets who want to clap when the plane lands as if the pilot was doing it for the first time.

This very much sounds like a maintenance management procedure issue. No doubt boing are being inundated by offers of help from all those who make software to prevent this.

 

[ellal]

Sub-contractors weaken the quality control for components used in these aircraft making them much less safer than they should be.

Most companies use sub-contractors...

Boeing though only has one country overseeing safety...

Airbus has several countries involved in that process...

How come they are doing it better?

 

[gas112]

One of biggest problems with airline maintenance is the use knowingly and unknowingly of inferior counterfiet parts

 

[Odds]

Most companies use sub-contractors...

Boeing though only has one country overseeing safety...

Airbus has several countries involved in that process...

How come they are doing it better?

Airbus had their problems implementing new software, just as much as Boeing: fly-by-wire was an issue once, i think. Americans prefer a different system. Is the European air industry more regulated than America?
That'd make a difference in standards.

 

[SirGalahad]

Boeing like so many once great manufacturing companies came under the spell of Mckinsey et al management consultants where you focused on the financials to the detriment of what was the core of the company.

It was their stupid reverse merger with the smaller MD which was less focused on engineering and more focused on the financial side.

A sad story but it's like so many once great companies when they let the financial industry determine success and failure.

 

[SirGalahad]

"There were many decades when Boeing did extraordinary things by focusing on excellence and safety and ingenuity. Those three virtues were seen as the key to profit. It could work, and beautifully. And then they were taken over by a group that decided Wall Street was the end-all, be-all. There needs to be a balance in play, so you have to elect representatives that hold the companies responsible for the public interest, rather than just lining their own pocketbooks."[5

There is a netflix documentary

The irony being all the tory voters on here will agree with the sentiments above when the money men takeover but then happily support Sunak a money man ex banker.

So can we say they are a bunch oh hypocrites?

 

[ellal]

Is the European air industry more regulated than America?

As far as maintenance, it appears so.

And as for aircraft the new regulations for electric ones are apparently different...

US officials said. "The regulator believes it can reach the same level of safety in operations without the same requirements for back-up systems to be built into aircraft because it will have accounted for risks in other ways"

“It’s been a real positive for US-based companies because the regulator is so on board”

Whereas...

EASA has openly said, "We know our regulations are harder and not good for business, and we don’t care,"

“Archer’s (electric aviation company) opinion is that high safety standards are not good for business. This point of view is not shared by EASA.”