Today’s key stories focus on the NTSB hearings in Washington DC regarding the door plug decompression incident on the 737 MAX 9, and multiple stories on the Starliner, which now has the potential to be a colossal failure for Boeing. The tone of news stories make this a bad day for Boeing in the press.
The NTSB hearings were contentious, and while Boeing and Spirit spoke about improvements, the NTSB chief indicated that the session was not a PR campaign for the companies and demanded answers as to how this happened. At the hearing, Boeing machinists spoke about workers being too rushed to learn new procedures, and other employees described chaos and dysfunction in the factors. Compounding the issue, the NTSB and Boeing have yet to determine who removed the door plug on the ill-fated aircraft. The Alaska co-pilot described the ‘explosive experience’ from his perspective as well. The bottom line is this is something that should never have happened, and to a jury may appear to be gross negligence, given the lack of Boeing’s ability to clearly identify who failed to secure the door plug.
Meanwhile, the astronauts scheduled for a week in Space have just reached two months on the ISS, and may be unable to return for a while. It now appears that NASA is delaying the next mission from SpaceX to the ISS as apparently the Starliner no longer has automated return software on-board and now requires an astronaut to bring the capsule home. The delay corresponds to a Boeing estimate of 4 weeks to replace the software to enable automated undocking and return to earth. While NASA has not yet reached a conclusion, it now appears that the next SpaceX mission may leave two seats empty to provide room for the two astronauts to return on the more proven system. NASA will soon have a decision to make regarding what now appears to be a failed program that cannot complete its basic mission.
Links to today’s key stories follow:
- Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems defend safety improvements at NTSB hearing – CBS News
- ‘This is not a PR campaign for Boeing’: NTSB Chair rips into Boeing during hearing over 737 MAX – Skift
- Boeing workers too rushed to learn new procedures, Machinist leader tells NTSB – Seattle Times
- ‘Cockroaches of the factory’: Workers paint a picture of chaos and dysfunction at Boeing – 9 News
- NTSB, Boeing have not been able to identify who removed 737 MAX 9 door plus – Reuters
- ‘It was chaos’ – Alaska Airlines co-pilot describes ‘explosive experience’ during Boeing jet fiasco – Fortune
- NASA’s Boeing-sized headache – Politico
- It turns out Boeing’s derelict Starliner is unable to fly without a crew on board – Futurism.com
