737 Boeing Airplanes have loose bolts (UPDATE: Boeing not install any bolts to begin with)

[Blue3]

Alaska Airlines CEO is angry, has found loose bolts on “many” Boeing planes in internal review since the near-disaster, appears to be widespread feature across all Boeing airplanes

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/alaska-airlines-found-more-loose-bolts-boeing-737-max-9-ceo-says-rcna135316

The CEO of Alaska Airlines said new, in-house inspections of the carrier's Boeing 737 Max 9 planes in the wake of a near-disaster earlier this month revealed that “many” of the aircraft were found to have loose bolts.

In an exclusive interview with NBC News senior correspondent Tom Costello, Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci discussed the findings of his company's inspections so far since the Jan. 5 incident, in which a panel on one of its Max 9 jets blew out midair on a flight carrying 177 people.

“I’m more than frustrated and disappointed,” he said. “I am angry. This happened to Alaska Airlines. It happened to our guests and happened to our people. And — my demand on Boeing is what are they going to do to improve their quality programs in-house.”

Following the incident, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered all Boeing Max 9 planes grounded and launched a safety investigation. The agency also announced an audit of Boeing's Max 9 production line and suppliers "to evaluate Boeing’s compliance with its approved quality procedures." It is also subjecting Boeing, as well as its third-party suppliers, to additional increased monitoring.

The incident also prompted lawmakers to question whether Boeing's quality control systems are adequate.

“Given the previous tragic crashes of Boeing 737 Max aircraft, we are deeply concerned that the loose bolts represent a systemic issue with Boeing’s capabilities to manufacture safe airplanes,” Sens. Ed Markey, J.D. Vance and Peter Welch wrote to Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun earlier this month.

[SnowLabrador]

Jesus Christ.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

Guess I'll be making sure I'm flying Airbus for the foreseeable future.

A shame, I was always rooting for Boeing but they've really dropped the ball the last few years.

[jojoju1998]

What the hell happened to Boeing in the last 20 years ?

[7,052,770]

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1749974638086517183

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

What the hell happened to Boeing in the last 20 years ?

Financialization, and the "geniuses" in management patting each other on the back for figuring out that they can get fresh young engineers for a fraction of the cost of old experienced engineers.  There's more than that, but those two things are the heart of it. (And they're really just different facets of the same thing.)

[Sestak]

What the hell happened to Boeing in the last 20 years ?

[GP270watch]

When they passed over Alan Mulally for the next CEO and hired James McNerney that was really bad. James McNerney was a Jack Welch guy at G.E. and he proceeded to do Welch style financial engineering at Boeing instead of actual engineering.

[Vosem]

https://twitter.com/IRHotTakes/status/1749939538498097165

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

I think perhaps one of my most controversial opinions is that commercial air travel is too safe.  And this is mostly fueled by media coverage.

Over a hundred Americans die every single day in auto accidents (and increasing!) and no one seems to care.

Meanwhile, the total number of passengers killed on US commercial airlines over the past ten years is one.

And yet, a single airplane has a mechanical problems (in which no one dies), and it’s a huge national story for weeks.

For some reason, Americans tolerate constant delays, flight cancellations, tedious inconvenience, and invasions of privacy over almost completely fabricated safety concerns.

Really, the only actual threat to passenger safety on commercial airlines is the pilot deliberately murdering the passengers.

[Badger]

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1749974638086517183

Yeah, this is that whole Dei dumpster fire of a thread in a nutshell.

[MaxQue]

What the hell happened to Boeing in the last 20 years ?

Shareholder greed and their total lack of imputability.

[GP270watch]

 Another problem is also regulation of Boeing was pretty much left to Boeing. The FAA was defanged and Boeing basically regulated itself or lobbied heavily to be exempt from regulations. This is a classic example of why libertarian philosophy is a failure. You can't think of company that has a bigger interest in safety and quality than an airplane maker. The simple minded libertarian tells us that businesses will do the right thing to not suffer injury to customers or reputational damage. This is obviously hogwash as the libertarian economic philosophy also says that a corporation's only obligation is to maximize profits to shareholders.

[jojoju1998]

Another problem is also regulation of Boeing was pretty much left to Boeing. The FAA was defanged and Boeing basically regulated itself or lobbied heavily to be exempt from regulations. This is a classic example of why libertarian philosophy is a failure. You can't think of company that has a bigger interest in safety and quality than an airplane maker. The simple minded libertarian tells us that the businesses will do the right thing to not suffer injury to customers or reputational damage. This is obviously hogwash as the libertarian economic philosophy also says that a corporation's only obligation is to maximize profits to shareholders.

Short term, that is the case. But Long term ? They're going to lose out.


Boeing's stock price has collasped in the last 5 years, while Airbus's stock price has gone up.

[Epaminondas]

Until US airlines start switching over to Airbus aircraft, none of this matters except for Boeing shareholders.

What would be needed for this to happen?

[Sirius_]

Until US airlines start switching over to Airbus aircraft, none of this matters except for Boeing shareholders.

What would be needed for this to happen?

Airbus is already outselling Boeing and there are lots of Airbus planes in the USA

[jojoju1998]

Until US airlines start switching over to Airbus aircraft, none of this matters except for Boeing shareholders.

What would be needed for this to happen?

American Airlines bought a tok of Airbus 6-7 years ago.

Delta and United have more Boeings, but their Boeings are from the 1990s.


The only two airlines that use Boeing exclusively is southwest and Alaska.

[GP270watch]

Another problem is also regulation of Boeing was pretty much left to Boeing. The FAA was defanged and Boeing basically regulated itself or lobbied heavily to be exempt from regulations. This is a classic example of why libertarian philosophy is a failure. You can't think of company that has a bigger interest in safety and quality than an airplane maker. The simple minded libertarian tells us that the businesses will do the right thing to not suffer injury to customers or reputational damage. This is obviously hogwash as the libertarian economic philosophy also says that a corporation's only obligation is to maximize profits to shareholders.

Short term, that is the case. But Long term ? They're going to lose out.


Boeing's stock price has collasped in the last 5 years, while Airbus's stock price has gone up.

 The U.S. allowing airplane manufacturing to be eroded by inept CEOs and bad regulation is not beneficial to Americans. Airbus is a foreign company. Why would the United States allow one of its greatest companies to languish because it embraced the worst aspects of the free market libertarianism? An industry that is critical to manufacturing, diplomacy, and national security.

 There is an Airplane duopoly another thing that lazy Boeing has taken advantage of. Many Air-carriers can not simply switch to Airbus, they would have to retrofit their equipment and terminals, retrain pilots, and then get on a long queue because Airbus is backordered for years. Even with their ineptitude Boeing is still getting tons of orders in India and the Chinese literally need thousands of planes because their Air travel sector is exploding.

 Boeing should be raking in cash and taking advantage of an air-travel boom but corporate greed and bad regulation is having this once great company languish. On top of that they can't even produce current designs correctly and will probably lose out on the next generation of planes because they keep wasting money to get stuff right that should have been right the first time.

[Epaminondas]

The U.S. allowing airplane manufacturing to be eroded by inept CEOs and bad regulation is not beneficial to Americans. Airbus is a foreign company. Why would the United States allow one of its greatest companies to languish because it embraced the worst aspects of the free market libertarianism?

Through its incompetence, Boeing is harming American customers and investors more than would the regulated "foreign" company Airbus with functional safety policies.

What is there to fear from Airbus, which doesn't even have a clear individual country behind it?

[jojoju1998]

The U.S. allowing airplane manufacturing to be eroded by inept CEOs and bad regulation is not beneficial to Americans. Airbus is a foreign company. Why would the United States allow one of its greatest companies to languish because it embraced the worst aspects of the free market libertarianism?

Through its incompetence, Boeing is harming American customers and investors more than would the regulated "foreign" company Airbus with functional safety policies.

What is there to fear from Airbus, which doesn't even have a clear individual country behind it?

Also the CEO of Airbus said himself, that he wants Boeing to thrive, because i guess he doesn't want Airbus to go at this business alone.

[Epaminondas]

Alaska's CEO Ben Minicucci on Thursday said Alaska remains "fully committed" to its relationship with Boeing, adding: "We're going to hold Boeing's feet to the fire to make sure that we get good airplanes out of that factory."

(https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/faa-halt-boeing-max-production-expansion-hit-airlines-suppliers-2024-01-25/)

What is the incentive of Boeing to make efforts if US airlines such as Alaskan admit they will keep buying Boeings that barely get off the ground?

[Angel of Death]

What the hell happened to Boeing in the last 20 years ?

Regulatory capture

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Another problem is also regulation of Boeing was pretty much left to Boeing. The FAA was defanged and Boeing basically regulated itself or lobbied heavily to be exempt from regulations. This is a classic example of why libertarian philosophy is a failure. You can't think of company that has a bigger interest in safety and quality than an airplane maker. The simple minded libertarian tells us that the businesses will do the right thing to not suffer injury to customers or reputational damage. This is obviously hogwash as the libertarian economic philosophy also says that a corporation's only obligation is to maximize profits to shareholders.

Short term, that is the case. But Long term ? They're going to lose out.


Boeing's stock price has collasped in the last 5 years, while Airbus's stock price has gone up.

Corporate short-termism is a cultural, moral, and even spiritual problem that is not directly downstream from any particular political economy, but it does seem especially hard to dislodge among stakeholders whose policy views are very laissez-faire.

[oldtimer]

A bit of everything posted here is at fault with Boeing.

The closest analogy was Harland & Wolfe cutting corners for Red Star Lines while building the Titanic.

British engineering and industry has been suffering since the existance of Germany.

[GP270watch]

The U.S. allowing airplane manufacturing to be eroded by inept CEOs and bad regulation is not beneficial to Americans. Airbus is a foreign company. Why would the United States allow one of its greatest companies to languish because it embraced the worst aspects of the free market libertarianism?

Through its incompetence, Boeing is harming American customers and investors more than would the regulated "foreign" company Airbus with functional safety policies.

What is there to fear from Airbus, which doesn't even have a clear individual country behind it?

 There is nothing to fear from Airbus but Boeing falling behind is bad for us as a nation. I think Airbus shows that regulating an industry as the Europeans do and working towards sustainability led to good designs and profits. The reason why having a large airplane manufacturer is important is because you're not relying on a foreign country for your domestic infrastructure, it opens up diplomacy(China for example), and Boeing is also a huge national defense contractor where it has also seen mishaps and bad designs.