China News Service, March 13: "The plane took a nosedive without any prior notice. The way it plummeted was unlike anything I had ever experienced in any slight turbulence. It felt like being at the top of a roller coaster."
"Many passengers were thrown from their seats, hit the roof of the plane and then fell down the aisle again... People were screaming and crying. In just a few seconds, there was massive chaos."
This is a shocking scene that appeared on the Boeing 787-9 passenger plane on March 11, local time.
At that time, a Boeing aircraft of the Chile-based LATAM Airlines flying from Sydney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand, made a sudden descent during the flight due to technical problems and "drew violently" for several seconds, causing passengers to hit the roof of the cabin and causing at least 50 injuries. People get hurt.
In recent times, many Boeing aircraft have been involved in accidents, causing concern from the outside world.
Is Boeing still safe?
Who is responsible for the accident?
Image source: Screenshot of Reuters report
Accidents occur frequently
Who is "gamble" with passengers' lives?
Boeing bills itself as "the world's leading aerospace company" on its official website, but the reality is that in the past three months alone, multiple safety incidents have occurred.
On March 8, 2024, a United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX aircraft overran the runway when landing at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. Fortunately, no one was injured.
On March 7, a United Airlines Boeing 777-200 had a tire fall off shortly after taking off from San Francisco International Airport and made an emergency landing.
Falling tire fragments damaged several cars in the airport employee parking lot.
On February 19, a United Airlines Boeing 757 flying from San Francisco to Boston made an emergency landing after discovering that one wing was "broken" during the flight.
Data map: On October 29, 2018, the search and rescue work for the crashed Indonesian Lion Air JT-610 passenger plane was carried out overnight.
Looking back at Boeing's safety incidents in recent years, the ones that have shocked and saddened the outside world may be the two fatal air crashes involving Boeing 737 MAX aircraft - in October 2018 and March 2019, a Lion Air flight in Indonesia and an Ethiopian Airlines flight. There were separate air crashes on airline flights, killing a total of 346 people.
Investigations and claims against Boeing have continued over the years.
According to a report released by the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the design of the Boeing 737 MAX series passenger aircraft "failed" and the Federal Aviation Administration's certification review of this type of aircraft was "seriously inadequate."
The report also pointed out that after the Indonesian Lion Air crash in 2018, neither the Federal Aviation Administration nor Boeing grounded this model of passenger aircraft, which was a "gamble" on the safety of passengers.
On the other hand, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a related criminal complaint against Boeing in January 2021, and the two parties have since reached a deferred prosecution agreement.
Boeing agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion in fines and restitution and committed to implementing compliance and improvement programs.
Data map: On March 13, 2019, three days after the Ethiopian Airlines crash, the cleanup of the remains of the plane and the belongings of the victims continued.
On the same day, staff placed flowers at the accident site to commemorate the victims.
"Clown design, monkey supervision"
Are Boeing planes still safe?
Why do Boeing aircraft have frequent problems?
Who is responsible?
U.S. media recently reported that the Federal Aviation Administration conducted 89 audits on Boeing, 33 of which failed, and a total of 97 cases of suspected noncompliance were discovered.
In addition, 13 audits were conducted on airframe supplier Spirit Aerospace Systems, seven of which failed.
John Barnett, a quality manager who has worked for Boeing for 32 years, exposed many problems in Boeing's production and manufacturing to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as early as 2019:
Workers under pressure "deliberately installed substandard parts on aircraft" on the production line; some workers failed to follow relevant parts tracking procedures, resulting in the loss of defective parts; substandard parts were even picked out of scrap bins , reinstalled on aircraft being manufactured to prevent production delays…
Barnett revealed that he had warned internal management about similar concerns, but no action was taken.
After retiring, he began a long legal battle against Boeing.
However, Boeing denied his claims.
According to the latest news from the BBC, the "whistleblower" who exposed Boeing's quality chaos was found dead in a hotel parking lot in the United States on March 9, 2024. The incident is under investigation.
Image source: Screenshot from BBC report
Barnett isn't the only employee to have questions and concerns about Boeing.
The New York Times also reported on Boeing's internal communication records in 2020, in which some employees were exposed as criticizing the Boeing 737 MAX series of airliners as being "designed by clowns and supervised by monkeys."
Foreign media reports also stated that in order to save costs, Boeing only arranged for pilots to use iPads to receive one-hour 737MAX flight training, instead of spending huge amounts of money and a lot of time on flight simulator system training.
Regarding Boeing's series of problems, CNN hit the nail on the head: The company has shifted its focus to financial performance over the past few decades, "at the expense of the safety and quality of the aircraft."
In this case, where are the regulators?
The Guardian commented, “A profit-driven culture has taken over. Boeing, like many American companies, seems to be coasting on a reputation built over decades, but it is losing that reputation quarter after quarter. ."(over)