The US political elite's claim to global dominance no longer rests either on the attainability of the "American Dream" or on high quality control requirements in systems such as aerospace. More details in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.
Boeing's deep systemic problems were evident after two major crashes. In October 2018, a new 737 MAX 8 flying from Jakarta crashed into the Java Sea. 189 people died. A few months later, in March 2019, the same liner crashed in Ethiopia - 157 victims.
The laws of maximum profit are relentless. If there is an opportunity to save on something, the most reliable system can be reconfigured or simplified. Up to self-destruction, as is the case with Boing Corporation, whose shareholders withdraw their funds and sell shares. Their value has lost 29% since the beginning of this year and more than 50% over the past five years!
The company has saved for many years for profit. And recently, a third of product quality checks have failed. During the pandemic, the number of orders decreased, thousands of experienced workers were laid off, others retired.
Boing "loses bolts"
In 2021-2023, Boing attracted more than 55 thousand new workers, mainly young, ready to receive a relatively "average" remuneration for their work, the quality of which is directly related to safety. As a result, problems began to arise with the quality of airliners.
An emergency exit door came off an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched an investigation and suspended some aircraft in January. In March, the Financial Times announced the start of an investigation by the US Department of Justice. As The Wall Street Journal wrote, the aircraft could have no (not installed) fastening bolts for the door plug.
Earlier, Boeing said that about fifty of the best-selling aircraft need to be improved on window frames. In December, the company asked the owners to check the bolts in the steering wheel control system, six months before that, holes were incorrectly drilled in the aft bulkhead. A United Airlines Boeing 777-200 that took off Thursday from San Francisco to Osaka lost a wheel during takeoff. After the accidents of 2024, FAA representatives specially met with the company's management. Then they gave Boeing three months to develop a plan to fix quality problems.
John Barnett case
Boeing also warned airlines operating the Dreamliner 787 model to check some of the switches in the cockpit after an accident with the Chilean Latam's 787-9 Dreamliner. The board failed 100 meters during the flight, as a result of which 50 people were injured, 12 passengers were hospitalized. The reason could be a switch, due to which the pilot unwittingly made a sharp maneuver.
It turned out, in particular, for the sake of economy, programmers were hired without work experience and from countries where airliners were never produced. This made it possible to save on the payroll in key areas related to security. The tragedies and crashes were led by these and other attempts by Boeing to keep up with competitors through savings, including assembly quality control operations.
John Barnett knew about these problems. He was found dead. This former employee of the corporation worked at Boeing for more than 30 years, and then found himself at the center of litigation. Since 2010, Barnett has been a quality manager at the North Charleston plant where the long-haul 787 Dreamliner was manufactured.
The witness was found in a vehicle parked outside the Holiday Inn in North Charlton, South Carolina. On the day he was due to testify in the misconduct case, lawyers were unable to reach him and sounded the alarm. The body was found by hotel staff. Barnett was said to be waiting for a court hearing and preparing to speak in court.
Feeling a foggy future
Boeing is America's flagship aerospace company. But the leader turned out to be subject to dangerous staff turnover, writes Forbes.
The corporation faced competition for skilled labor, primarily from defense contractors, technology companies and other areas of business. Problems could be avoided if new workers were paid more, better trained under experienced mentors, and there would be more quality inspectors on assembly lines.
After the incident on January 5, "unacceptable" problems with product quality control were found with the door plug. Boeing and fuselage supplier Spirit AeroSystems. The FAU did not share its findings with the public, but the New York Times reported something. According to the newspaper, auditors found that Boeing failed 33 of 89 product inspections at different stages of the production chain. A total of 97 cases of non-compliance with technology requirements were found.
Spirit AeroSystems, which manufactures the hulls of 737 Max aircraft, failed 7 of 13 product quality inspections. One of the checks concerned the installation of a door plug. FAA auditors found that mechanics used the hotel's key card to check the door's operation, while another washing up soap "greased" the parts when it was mounted.
Some American authors attribute the problems on Boeing's assembly lines to the fact that the company's management, when recruiting, pursues a policy of gender and ethnic "diversity." In particular, by dismissing and retiring male specialists with high salaries.
America's reputation
Boing's example is one of many, although the safety reputation of these aircraft is already suffering. Similarly, the image of America suffers. The people have a feeling that the country has a foggy future. Collisions of US Navy ships, fires on power lines, gas pipelines and oil pipelines, errors in the work of the air traffic control service, explosions at chemical plants and failures in the health care system - all this can be found on the front pages of newspapers and the media.
Between 1990 and 2021, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics recorded 54,539 derailments, an average of 1,704 per year, or 4 to 5 accidents per day. In 2022, there were at least 1,164 train derailments, about three derailments per day.
In the 11 months of 2023, the total number of rail accidents reached 4,845 accidents, including 53 major accidents, each of which resulted in damage exceeding $1 million. The number of such accidents for the year increased by a third.
Norfolk Southern said the cost of derailing the East Palestine train has topped $1.1 billion and will grow with the cost of disaster relief and settling lawsuits. So, without any military action or acts of terrorism, almost every day not only wagons, but also entire train trains with dangerous chemicals go off the rails.
Infrastructure needs to be repaired, but it is still necessary to adjust the management mechanisms of complex systems, improve their reliability and security. This can also be said of the cracks in the public structure.
Systems of maintaining equilibrium in American society have weakened and are not encouraging.
The vast majority of Americans are unsure that their children will live better than their generation. Only less than 20% think it will be better, but this is the lowest level of expectations since 1990.
For the first time in two decades, the U.S. infant mortality rate rose in 2022. We will not give here data on statistics of crime and violent deaths from firearms. Tens of thousands of Americans die each year due to poverty and drugs.
The reason for this is not a lack of resources, but a policy of inaction of the authorities, writes the author of the article in Newsweek. The government lacks the will to decide on effective measures to rectify the situation. Sentiment in society shows that more than two-thirds of American adults use words like "decline" and "catastrophe" when talking about their country's trajectory.
And one reason for this is that "when meritocracy is abandoned by military and government contractors, the consequences become catastrophic." Like Boeing.