Boeing's Continuing Troubles with 737 MAX
By: Kenneth Huddleston
Boeing is a highly regarded name in the aviation industry and has been around since 1916. They have several contracts with the military to include the United States Army and Air Force. In 2018 and 2019 Boeing began having issues with their 737 MAX models, one that led to crashes resulting in the loss of 346 people between two separate incidents. Most recently there was a jet that lost a door plug during flight, resulting in an emergency landing and the grounding of about 171 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
A Brief Overview of Boeing’s 737 MAX Troubles
In 2018 and 2019 Boeing began having issues with their 737 MAX models, which led to crashes resulting in the loss of 346 people between two separate incidents. Most recently there was a jet that lost a door plug during flight, resulting in an emergency landing.
The Global Grounding of the 737 MAX
The in-flight incident that could have led to the catastrophic death of hundreds of people, led to the grounding of 171 Boeing aircraft across the nation. On top of the loss of the aircraft in question, Alaska Airlines also had to ground 65 more of their Boeing 737s temporarily for maintenance and safety inspections according to NBC news (MSN, n.d.). I chose this particular issue because this is not the first incident that has happened with the 737 MAX, and it has continued to have problems that plagued Boeing shortly after the plane entered service since 2017.
Boeing’s Lack of Training for Pilots
After the first crash in 2018, Boeing issued a Flight Crew Operations Manual Bulletin, that contained procedures showing pilots how to respond to flight control issues caused by inaccurate angle of attack inputs. Before the 2018 crash, originally, the MCAS system was not identified in the original training for 737 MAX pilots. Even after all of this Boeing would still try and shift the blame of their design flaws in the 737 MAX's systems and point the finger at the pilots, saying that they were inexperienced.
Boeing's Finacial Fallout
In 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Justice Boeing was charged with fraud and conspiracy and agreed to pay over $2.5 billion to MAX airline customers and crash-victim beneficiaries. The fact that Boeing and their employees were willing to withhold information while blaming pilots and maintainers for design flaws that they were fully aware of makes you question the ethics of one of the largest and leading commercial airplane manufacturers in the world. The continuing issues that Boeing is having with this aircraft are quite concerning but what is more concerning to me is the company’s ethics and values, or lack of values.
Design Flaws of 737 MAX
When Boeing learned of Airbus's new aircraft, the A320, to keep up with their competition. Boeing elected to modify the latest generation of the 737 family, the 737NG, rather than design an entirely new aircraft (Herkert, 2020). Boeing decided, instead of building a whole new aircraft to use their existing frame and mount more fuel-efficient engines to the 737 MAX. In order to provide appropriate ground clearance, the larger engines had to be mounted higher and farther forward on the wings than previous models of the 737 (Herkert, 2020).
Boeing’s Attempt to Rebuild Trust
In a recent interview, Boeing's CEO Dave Calhoun stated,
On transparency: “We’re going to approach it with 100% complete transparency every step of the way.”
On trust: “We’re going to have to demonstrate it by our actions, by our willingness to work directly and transparently with them (customers). And to make sure they understand that every airplane that Boeing has its name on that’s in the sky is in fact safe.”(737-9 Updates, n.d.)
Boeing currently has quite a few obstacles to overcome, and it may take a while for their customers and airline passengers to regain their trust.
1.) Herkert J, Borenstein J, Miller K. The Boeing 737 MAX: Lessons for Engineering Ethics. Sci Eng Ethics. 2020 Dec;26(6):2957-2974. doi: 10.1007/s11948-020-00252-y. Epub 2020 Jul 10. PMID: 32651773; PMCID: PMC7351545.
2.) Boeing Charged with 737 Max Fraud Conspiracy and Agrees to Pay over $2.5 Billion. (2021, January 7). https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/boeing-charged-737-max-fraud-conspiracy-and-agrees-pay-over-25-billion
3.) Blackmon J, Romero D, FAA orders temporary grounding of Boeing 737 Max 9 after a piece of Alaska Airline plane wall detached midair. (2024, January 7). NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alaska-airlines-flight-makes-emergency-landing-part-plane-appears-deta-rcna132618
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