Another tripping RCCB

[webfact]

U.S. lawmakers will press Boeing CEO for answers on 737 MAX crashes

By David Shepardson

 

FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo shows Boeing 737 MAX aircraft at Boeing facilities at the Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Washington, September 16, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of a U.S. Senate panel reviewing two catastrophic Boeing 737 MAX crashes told Reuters ahead of hearings this week that the plane would not return to U.S. skies until "99.9% of the American public" and policymakers are convinced it is safe.

 

Boeing Co <BA.N> Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg will testify for two days before Congress starting on Tuesday, which is the anniversary of the Lion Air 737 MAX crash in Indonesia, the first of two crashes within five months that killed a total of 346 people.

 

"Clearly the accidents didn't have to happen and I don't think there was sufficient attention to how different pilots would react to signals in the cockpit," Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee that will hold the first hearing, said in an interview on Friday.

 

Several reports have found Boeing failed to adequately consider how pilots respond to 737 MAX cockpit emergencies in designing the airplane.

 

The Federal Aviation Administration has spent months reviewing Boeing's proposed software upgrades to a key safety system and other training and system changes but is not expected to allow the plane to return to service until December at the earliest.

 

"That plane won't fly unless 99.9% of the American public and American policymakers are convinced that it's absolutely safe," Wicker said, adding he planned to raise Boeing's communication with the FAA during the 737 MAX's development and "the relationship between regulators and manufacturers" during the hearing.

 

"The main question is how can we have a comfort level that they won't happen again," Wicker said.

 

Wicker said he expected to see the results of all the various investigations before proceeding to legislative moves and whether Congress must reform the FAA's practice of designating some certification tasks to Boeing and other manufacturers.

 

"Clearly there was a breakdown in the system somewhere and clearly changes needed to be made," Wicker said. "We need to make sure (the 737 MAX) is as safe as humanly possible."

 

'A LOT OF SCRUTINY'

Muilenburg, who earlier this month was stripped of his title as board chairman, said on a conference call last week he was "looking forward to participating in those hearings. I anticipate there will be tough questions, challenging questions, a lot of scrutiny."

 

Also last week, Boeing ousted its commercial airplanes chief.

 

A report issued on Friday by Indonesian investigators found Boeing, acting without adequate oversight from U.S. regulators, failed to grasp risks in the design of cockpit software on its 737 MAX, sowing the seeds for the Lion Air crash that also involved errors by airline workers and crew.

 

Earlier this month, the chairman of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which will hold Wednesday's hearing, told Reuters that Boeing must shake up its management team. "Boeing's got to clean up its culture and I don't think you can clean it up with the people who were in charge when this all unfolded," U.S. Democratic Representative Peter DeFazio said.

 

DeFazio said Congress must reform how the FAA certifies new airplanes. In the case of the 737 MAX, the FAA designated more than 40% of the tasks to Boeing.

 

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-10-28

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[colinneil]

US law makers will press Boeing ceo for answers. Why?

The answers are easy....... Money, making BIG money, and Staying ahead of Airbus.

Loss of life just collateral damage, in the eyes of Boeing bosses.

[LomSak27]

Once Upon a time Boeing was run, or driven by engineers. When they bought, but then gave voting rights to McDonnell Douglas CEO's, that was the downfall of a great company. It signalled the ascendance of the bean counter CEO's and top office

 

Moved the head quarters to Chicago, try to move production to "centers of excellence" like South Carolina.  ????   A move to get better tax rates and a non unionized workforce, nothing to do with excellence. 

 

With bean counters firmly in control this is what you get. The 737 should have been a complete redesign, this was a top office decision. The engineers never liked it.

 

The 787 still has production problems  in South Carolina BTW. Recall the 787 had battery problems, (among others). That was an out sourcing problem. Bean counters said we will make more money if we out source production. However when batteries blow up, people don't say 'hey that is a Japanese company', no  they say its a Boeing airplane. Flipping idiots

 

The people that sorted that clusterpuck out were the old school engineers. They guy in charge of cleaning up the 787 problem, worked on the 747 in the late 60's. That was his last rodeo. That was the last ride of the Seattle engineer teams, cleaning up the 787 mistakes.

 

The pile of excrement of the chicago bean counters had turned the company into with this 737. The substandard 787 South Carolina production line?! Can't do squat about them. Those guys were passed retirement back at that time. they're gone now. Sad to watch a company sink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 28, 2019 by LomSak27

[leeneeds]

be like the DC10 planes that fell out of the sky people myself included would ask what plane was being used on that particular flight and if it is a 737 ask for another flight or different day , I refused to board Dc 10 and waited 8 hours for another flight, once confidence is lost in a plane model it tends to be remembered for good reason, tarnished, not a preferred option to fly on.

[justin case]

so boeing is a bit like big pharma... put out something new without real testing

 

if people die because of it, just the cost of doing business

 

should be 300 cases of murder charges

 

 

[LomSak27]

40 minutes ago, justin case said:

so boeing is a bit like big pharma... put out something new without real testing

That is a superficial response, the armchair Leo analysis. It's Thai Visa Natch.   

[zydeco]

6 hours ago, LomSak27 said:

The 737 should have been a complete redesign, this was a top office decision. The engineers never liked it.

Instead, Boeing took the huge amount of cash they amassed, along with no interest loans, and did stock buybacks to pump up their stock price, which gave executives bonuses. This plane needs to be scrapped.