'Designed by clowns': Boeing employees ridicule 737 MAX, regulators in internal messages

By David Shepardson

 

An employee walks past a Boeing 737 Max aircraft seen parked at the Renton Municipal Airport in Renton, Washington, U.S. January 10, 2020. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co has released hundreds of internal messages that contained harshly critical comments about the development of the 737 MAX, including one that said the plane was "designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys".

 

The messages, disclosed on Thursday, show attempts to duck regulatory scrutiny with employees disparaging the plane, the company, the Federal Aviation Administration and foreign aviation regulators.

 

In an instant messaging exchange on Feb. 8, 2018 - when the plane was in the air and eight months before the first of two fatal crashes, an employee asks another: "Would you put your family on a MAX simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn't".

 

The second employee responds: "No".

 

The 737 MAX has been grounded since March after an Ethiopian Airlines flight nose-dived, just five months after similar Lion Air crash. The two disasters killed 346.

 

In particular, some of the communications reveal efforts by Boeing to avoid making pilot simulator training - an expensive and time-consuming process - a requirement for the 737 MAX.

 

The plane maker just this week changed tack, saying it would recommend pilots do simulator training before they resume flying the 737 MAX - a major shift from its longheld position that computer-based training was sufficient as the plane was similar to its predecessor, the 737 NG.

 

The release of the messages, which highlight an aggressive cost-cutting culture and disrespect towards the FAA, is set to deepen the crisis at Boeing which is struggling to get its best-selling plane back in the air and restore public confidence.

 

The FAA said, however, that the messages do not raise new safety concerns although "the tone and content of some of the language contained in the documents is disappointing".

 

Boeing said the communications "do not reflect the company we are and need to be, and they are completely unacceptable".

 

For a factbox on excerpts from employees' messages, click on https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-737max-factbox/factbox-in-boeing-internal-messages-employees-distrust-the-737-max-and-mock-regulators-idUSKBN1Z90NP

 

PEARLY GATES CLOSED

 

The disclosure, which Boeing said was in the interest of transparency with the FAA, prompted renewed outrage from U.S. lawmakers and puts more pressure on Boeing's new CEO David Calhoun to overhaul the company's culture when he takes the reins on Monday.

 

House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, who has been investigating the MAX, said the messages "paint a deeply disturbing picture of the lengths Boeing was apparently willing to go to in order to evade scrutiny from regulators, flight crews, and the flying public, even as its own employees were sounding alarms internally."

 

Senator Roger Wicker, who chairs the commerce committee leading the senate's probe into Boeing, also said the latest documents "raise questions about the efficacy of FAA's oversight of the certification process."

 

The U.S. Justice Department has an active criminal investigation underway into matters related to the 737 MAX plane.

 

Some of the messages pointed to problems with the simulators. Boeing said on Thursday it is confident "all of Boeing's MAX simulators are functioning effectively" after repeated testing since the messages were written.

 

The messages, however, show Boeing in the past was doing all it could to lobby aviation regulators to avoid the need for airlines to train pilots in a simulator on the differences between the 737 MAX and the 737 NG.

 

"I want to stress the importance of holding firm that there will not be any type of simulator training required to transition from NG to MAX," Boeing's 737 chief technical pilot said in a March 2017 email.

 

"Boeing will not allow that to happen. We'll go face to face with any regulator who tries to make that a requirement."

 

Before the grounding, pilot training on the differences consisted of a one-hour lesson on an iPad and no time in the simulator, according to the union representing pilots at American Airlines.

 

Shukor Yusof, the head of Malaysia-based aviation consultancy Endau Analytics, said Boeing should get credit for disclosing the "destructive diatribes".

 

"Initially the flying public will understandably have reservations but the aircraft - having been completely and responsibly resurrected - will likely be one of the safest planes around," he said.

 

In other emails and instant messages, employees spoke of their frustration with the company's culture, complaining about the drive to find the cheapest suppliers and "impossible schedules".

 

"I don't know how to fix these things...it's systemic. It's culture. It's the fact we have a senior leadership team that understand very little about the business and yet are driving us to certain objectives," said an employee in an email dated June 2018.

 

And in a May 2018 message, an unnamed Boeing employee said: "I still haven't been forgiven by god for the covering up I did last year."

 

Without referencing what was covered up, the employee added: "Cant do it one more time. the Pearly gates will be closed..."

 

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Jamie Freed in Sydney, Tim Hepher in Paris, Chris Sanders in Washington and Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-01-11

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Shame none of the employees went public with their concerns before hundreds of people were killed, though given how whistleblowers tend to be treated, i.e. loss of career you can understand why.

47 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

"Boeing will not allow that to happen. We'll go face to face with any regulator who tries to make that a requirement."

happens way too often, the inmates are running the prison; regulatory agencies that aren't, responsible for public health and safety that aren't

Instead of spending money on R&D and designing a new plane, Boeing elected to use its billions of dollars in stock buybacks to pump up the price of the stock and give executives and upper management windfall bonuses. Meanwhile, people died in their mal-designed, only for profit, forget safety aircraft. 

Just scrap it and start again

37 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

Shame none of the employees went public with their concerns before hundreds of people were killed, though given how whistleblowers tend to be treated, i.e. loss of career you can understand why.

Their concerns would have been dismissed as grumbles from an ex employee.

And thats before Boeings lawyers took you to court and you left with no trousers on.

12 minutes ago, zydeco said:

Instead of spending money on R&D and designing a new plane, Boeing elected to use its billions of dollars in stock buybacks to pump up the price of the stock and give executives and upper management windfall bonuses. Meanwhile, people died in their mal-designed, only for profit, forget safety aircraft. 

Exactly what I understood. I cant find the original article but this from New Yorker;  In December, 1996, Boeing announced that it was buying a struggling rival, McDonnell Douglas, for thirteen billion dollars. Sorscher (a Boeing engineer) is one of many Boeing employees who have identified the merger as the moment when Boeing went from being led by engineers to being led by business executives driven by stock performance.

Quote

"I don't know how to fix these things...it's systemic. It's culture. It's the fact we have a senior leadership team that understand very little about the business and yet are driving us to certain objectives," said an employee in an email dated June 2018.

this.

managers taken in from other industries are a frequent cause of tragic failures.

the banking crisis was also in part caused by people I wouldn't call bankers.

I just read that the CEO is leaving with 60 million us$.....is that for his good work?

1 hour ago, zydeco said:

Instead of spending money on R&D and designing a new plane, Boeing elected to use its billions of dollars in stock buybacks to pump up the price of the stock and give executives and upper management windfall bonuses. Meanwhile, people died in their mal-designed, only for profit, forget safety aircraft. 

 

Nothing wrong with the aeroplane.

 

737 has an outstanding safety record.

 

It was an instrumentation/systems/training problem.

 

It was fitted with an anti-stall device that was not adequately developed/tested, the operation and defects of which operators were not properly familiarised with.

 

If that particular system had not been faulty, or if the system had not been fitted (and the pilots suitably trained on this new version of the 737) there would have been no problems.

 

It might be compared (in terms of its relationship to the aircraft and ultimate consequence) to one of those new systems on cars that stop you "wandering" across the road.

 

It is as if the anti-wander system actually steered you off the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Enoon said:

 

Nothing wrong with the aeroplane.

 

737 has an outstanding safety record.

 

It was an instrumentation/systems/training problem.

 

It was fitted with an anti-stall device that was not adequately developed/tested, the operation and defects of which operators were not properly familiarised with.

 

If that particular system had not been faulty, or if the system had not been fitted (and the pilots suitably trained on this new version of the 737) there would have been no problems.

 

It might be compared (in terms of its relationship to the aircraft and ultimate consequence) to one of those new systems on cars that stop you "wandering" across the road.

 

It is as if the anti-wander system actually steered you off the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's an inherently unstable aircraft because new, oversized engines were forced into the design of a fifty odd year old aircraft design. Even the employees of Boeing think it's a deathtrap. 

With all the revelations so far disclosed this has been a shoddy exercise from start to finish.

A world renowned company for decades whose reputation has been well and truly shot, and deservedly so. 

And the sacked boss walks away with 60 million dollars.?

Does nobody else think that the world is upside down in so many ways? 

9 hours ago, Lungstib said:

Boeing employees who have identified the merger as the moment when Boeing went from being led by engineers to being led by business executives driven by stock performance.

60% of Boeing's income comes from commercial aviation, 35% from military, so why has the stock value not fallen further?

 

3 hours ago, zydeco said:

It's an inherently unstable aircraft because new, oversized engines were forced into the design of a fifty odd year old aircraft design. Even the employees of Boeing think it's a deathtrap. 

Responsibility and common sense suggest the MAX should be scrapped, or at least its inherently unstable systems revised. But Boeing seem bent on getting it certified air worthy with minimal cost. Many lives lost but it is all about financial costs.

2 hours ago, Jonnapat said:

With all the revelations so far disclosed this has been a shoddy exercise from start to finish.

A world renowned company for decades whose reputation has been well and truly shot, and deservedly so. 

And the sacked boss walks away with 60 million dollars.?

Does nobody else think that the world is upside down in so many ways? 

To compare with $144,500 given to each victim's familly as compensation. 

10 hours ago, darksidedog said:

though given how whistleblowers tend to be treated

Quite! people knock those that tell the truth sad! ???? 

CEO are elected to make money for the shareholders, that's all they care about, another case of the mighty $ first! He was well rewarded for his efforts!

A lot of injustice in this world, remember the corrupt bankers - rewarded also, no prosecutions, China has the right attitude, they execute people caught for corruption! (well, some anyway!) 

23 hours ago, rooster59 said:

"I don't know how to fix these things...it's systemic. It's culture. It's the fact we have a senior leadership team that understand very little about the business and yet are driving us to certain objectives," said an employee in an email dated June 2018.

When accountants are more highly regarded than the engineers you're going to hit trouble in the aviation game. It's not a short term profit business!

Boeing knew exactly what they were doing and tried to get the Max into the air to compete with the Airbus Neo.

They screwed up big time and took full advantage of their cozy relationship with the FAA.

19 hours ago, zydeco said:

It's an inherently unstable aircraft because new, oversized engines were forced into the design of a fifty odd year old aircraft design. Even the employees of Boeing think it's a deathtrap. 

 

Thanks for quoting "The News" again.

 

Anyway.....

 

All aeroplanes change their flight characteristics when fitted with different engines.

 

That's why pilots have to be checked out properly when they fly new versions.

 

An excellent aeroplane, the Spitfire, underwent a considerable change in flight characteristics as it was progressively up-engined.

 

"They say" it became a lot less "nice" to fly.

 

The system that was fitted to cope with the differences, in this case, was faulty, and the pilots were not properly familiarised with it.

 

Had it not been fitted and had they been trained to fly the aeroplane, with its different flight characteristics, there would have been no accidents.

 

A recognised problem, in pilots increasingly trained to rely on automated systems, is their growing inability to fly the aeroplane.

 

FAA Wants Action On Declining Pilot Skills - AVweb

 

The next aeroplane you fly in will be fitted with automated flight management systems.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 12, 20206 yr by Enoon

41 minutes ago, Enoon said:

All aeroplanes change their flight characteristics when fitted with different engines.

Best let an engine driver explain.