Another Boeing whistleblower says he faced retaliation for reporting 'shortcuts' | Hacker News Reader

Another Boeing whistleblower says he faced retaliation for reporting 'shortcuts'

npr.org

48 pointspseudolus28 comments

Any tips on how avoid Boeing planes when booking flights? My last flight was on a 737 and we were delayed an hour at the gate after boarding because of an issue with the thrust reverse on one of the engines. Not exactly reassuring.

Tbh, I feel like you wouldn't get much benefit avoiding Boeing specifically - but would be interesting to see the data and be proven wrong!

I think, like me, this is about sending a message to Boeing.

You may be correct, but what else can I do other than avoid flying completely?

> would be interesting to see the data and be proven wrong!

Here's some data

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737_MAX#Accidents_and_i...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40010992

Ok, now let's see some data denominated by number of flight hours.

LOL. Imagine having multiple whistleblowers telling you about widespread criminal negligence at Boeing manufacturing facilities, then all you say is "Ok, now let's see some data". The fucking clowns on this site. LOL.

This is called a "strawman argument."

"Widespread criminal negligence" or not, these incidents are mathematically insignificant using highschool-level statistical analyses.

No it's not a strawman argument. You are missing the point. The article is about a whistleblower reporting criminal negligence at Boeing. It is not a statistical report. Statistics are irrelevant here. However if you want some recent Boeing stats then look at the 737 Max. Two complete losses within two years of its introduction. You must have been living in a cave to not hear about that.

From the article.

"In a virtual meeting with reporters, Salehpour said Boeing was so eager to meet its production goals that it took "shortcuts" when it fastened together the carbon-composite fuselage of the 787. That could dramatically shorten the life of the plane, he warned, potentially causing it to break apart in mid-flight."

Airlines usually let you know the plane build when you search for flights. They don't have a filter or "sort by" but when you click open flight details the plane will be listed.

Of course it doesn't preclude them from moving you to another flight or changing equipment

You'll have to investigate the fleet owned by each airline and pick airlines which pick non-Boeing aircraft. Because pilots trained on a Boeing aircraft can't just jump to a different airframe (i.e. origin of the MAX disaster,) or manufacturer without training, a lot of airlines will prefer one over the other. But this will vary with the routes they fly, and how old vs. new their fleet is.

If you're in the US, that is going to be very difficult. In EU, its more likely but will depend on the carrier.

I think it is next to impossible to accomplish on a per-flight basis, given frequent equipment changes can be.

Kayak let's you select: https://youtu.be/Q8oCilY4szc?t=1695

Also historical flight data like on https://www.flightradar24.com/

Will let you go back hundreds of flights, and find the airplane the airline uses most of the time, for that flight.

My recent impression is that more than anything it's not the plane but the airline which makes the biggest difference. Like, if Southwest had Airbuses pieces would have flown off just as well because of the airline's peculiar maintenance procedures.

Those types of problems happen all the time ( perhaps more with Boeing ), these are incredibly complex machines that are worked to the bone. The scary part is the nature of the faults! With all the shenanigans with design, production, QA and management at Boeing that even a Detroit automaker would frown upon.

Some of the low cost carriers fly exclusively non-Boeing planes: Spirit, JetBlue, Frontier.

JetBlue is not priced like a low cost carrier, their service over all is much better than United’s and they don’t charge for wifi. I’m a fan of their SFO <-> NY/FLL routes.

Does Boeing make jet engines? Why would a thrust reverser on a CFM56 installed on a 737 be Boeing's responsibility any more than one installed on an A319?

Culture starts at the top... Since criminal charges are probably a no-go (and under what law?) maybe an appropriate punishment would be to have every board member and exec pay back all profits and compensation they earned from Boeing dating back to 2005-ish (whenever financialization took hold). And it can't go away by declaring bankruptcy, they all need to pay back every penny starting immediately.

I don't think the US government even has mechanisms by which they can forcibly take money from the rich and the country is so corrupt that enforcing any kind of rule of law (which means law that applies to the rich, too) would cause large amounts of capital flight which would cause economic problems and instability for those in power.

Your average american doesn't understand that holding someone powerful to account is going to be personally painful (the idea contained in "freedom isn't free").

Yellen has even poked at this problem by trying to get other countries to band together and not accept billionaires fleeing from taxes and law enforcement.

How to make sure your corporation dies: ensure problems are swept under the rug and never solved.

As long as the US government exists, Boeing will be fine.

That’s also one of the reasons Boeing acts this way.

As long as the US government acts all softball on corperate socialism, that is true.

Governments over here also help out Airbus, yet it doesn't have auch issues.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-sep-27-fi-whist...

Yeah no issue with whistleblowers at all it would seem.

At least he wasn't murdered.

Another article that HN will use to justify their biases.

Without details, this article is worthless.

I think we're past bias... there's certainly enough evidence.

(In terms of details, they're quite literally provided in the opening sentence.)

What details. I read the opening sentence and the linked ones.

It makes a high level claim that doesn't have corresponding numbers with it.

What sort of numbers were you expecting here?

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