Monday, November 2, 2020

Boeing 737 Max Crash Analysis

 DW Documentary did an excellent job in detailing the factors involved in YouTube video:

 https://youtu.be/PdYcJldzOdw

However, I disagree with the claim that there is an all encompassing systemic failure on all parties. I think it's strictly Boeing Management.

Think about it: When Boeing ran by engineers, the planes become safer. Nowadays,  Boeing is run by business managers who values money above all. Greedy, you may say.

When engineers pointed out that 2 layers of safety needs another layer, the managers not only eliminated the extra safety margin, but also shut anyone who tried to warn people about it.  There's a segment in there where they blame the pilot for not doing the right thing. Of course,  Boeing has been adamant that pilots do not need additional training! What do I see? I see single point of failure where if something goes wrong and the fix is ineffective, catastrophic failure will occur. That's not safe engineering!

If you compare this with Sully landing on Houston river, as portrayed by the movie starting Tom Hanks, then you can see numerous options available for the pilots to do before it gets exhausted and even then the plane can touch down relatively unscathed.  That's safe engineering!

I don't blame the FAA. Sure they trusted Boeing too much, but as soon as they suspected that Boeing omitted certain info, in other words lying by omissions, then the FAA grounded the whole fleet. I don't think Boeing's claim of 100% legal is solid because Boeing certainly hid some crucial safety data.

In conclusion, Boeing sense of greed caused it to push solutions that are the cheapest and barely passing minimum, thus sacrificing the necessary safety margin and crucial training that could have prevented the planes from crashing. It's not the mechanical problem that is a problem. It's the lack of proper safety procedure to deal with it. Boeing says it's safe enough. After seeing the video, it's obvious to me that it isn't. 

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