Boeing, Fauci, and The Erosion of Public Trust
Trust can be destroyed in no time, and it won’t be easy to get it back.
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When I was at Denver International Airport last week, the place felt unusually empty. I got through security so fast because there were no lines that I felt a bit uneasy (sadly, I have been conditioned to expect long lines and delays at airports).
“Where is everybody?” I asked a TSA agent. He told me that many flights between Alaska Airlines and United were canceled due to Boeing’s ongoing problems with its 737 Max.
On January 5, Alaska Airlines’ Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft had to make an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, after a cabin door panel blew off midair and left a gaping hole on one side of the plane. Fortunately, no passengers or crew were seriously injured. Still, Alaska Airline grounded more than 100 planes and canceled many flights.
Then, United Airlines announced that it found loose hardware on the door plugs of Boeing 737 Max airplanes it operates. More planes were grounded, and more cancellations followed.
As is so often the case, Boeing and its key suppliers have been aware of the loose hardware problem since last year.
ABC News reports that Boeing disclosed in 2023 “a problem with fittings on Max jets where the fuselage meets the vertical section of the tail. Boeing said its Wichita, Kansas-based supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, used a ‘non-standard manufacturing process’ on some planes.” By the way, “Spirit also installs door plugs in the 737 Max 9,” including on the Alaska Airlines plane that had its door blown off midair.
I was shocked. Growing up in a socialist country, I am familiar with low-quality products with avoidable defects. I had never thought that one day I would witness something similar emerge in the United States of America.
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