Another Boeing 737 Max-8 crash

Definitely a "fog of war" aspect to this as the early reports from an Afghan government official were vastly different.

RIP 5 crewmembers

 

....and some Taliban insurgent folks are taking responsibility for shooting it down, though not substantiated yet.

 

Final report:
https://www.pama.org/uploads/1/2/0/9/120977269/pk-lqp-final-report.pdf

 

I didn't read too much of the report, but I did read the flight history / CVR section. Holy crap. You can summarize the whole thing by saying they never recognized they had a runaway trim. How many times did he command nose up for 5-10 seconds at a time? I am an ATP but have never flown a transport category airplane. Maybe it is normal to use that much trim but I still have to think it would only be for a configuration change. He did it lots of times. I know in the airplanes I fly I would be concerned about that.

They seem to imply that the AOA bias caused an altitude miscompare. Why would that be?

I have a friend who was flying the MAX8 for American before it was grounded. I talked to him a few weeks ago and he said he has been to simulator training on the airplane since the grounding. He said they put him through the accident scenario. I have to think it was this one, but he didn't say. He said he didn't have any trouble keeping the airplane flying. Maybe it's not the same since he knew problems were coming. It just stands out to me that neither pilot on that airplane said, "how do I get this SOB to act right?"

 

Some aviation news I thought was interesting......not at all Max-8 related, in fact not Boeing related at all....in fact this one pertains to the fairly new Airbus a350. It's one of the few new planes I've not yet had a chance to travel on but have a look at this shyt.

https://www.businessinsider.com/airbus-a350-engine-shutdowns-spill-cockpit-2020-1

 

More 737 MAX news and it ain't good.

https://time.com/5786263/boeing-737-max-debris-fuel-tanks/

Kind of makes you wonder, are they only finding all these new things wrong with the 737 MAX seemingly every other week because this particular model is under intense scrutiny. In other words, if all other types of planes were being looked at under this kind of a microscope would they be finding all the same kind of shit randomly.....and yet we're still flying on them everyday.

 

Is their production line quality control nonexistent or what ?

 

Short answer, yes!

 

I believe that the issues are being found due to increased vigilance, diligence, and a path to creating customer trust. These issues are always present, but we don't know the scale or volume. I believe that the attitude of the company is to be open and honest about the issues as well as the resolution plans. Be clear to the customer instead of hiding or downplaying issues. Rebuild the trust one seat at a time.

 

From what I've read they have 2 major production lines in the US.

That's why I was saying earlier that I think by the time this is all done with the 737 MAX might end up being one of the safest planes in the sky.....maybe, unless if does have some fundamental design flaws that cannot be patched, adjusted, fixed etc.

 

I agree completely, you have this stuff everywhere IMHO.

My dad was a UAW worker for Caterpillar for a little over 30 years. Started in the foundry and worked different positions until they discovered he was good at math and he became an inspector for a variety of parts.

I was shocked when he told me disgruntled workers would throw a handful of washers into a transmission when buttoning it up and sending out a tractor. I don’t know the specifics, but I was a kid when he told me, so in the 70’s that crap was going on.

Hard for me to fathom people being that stupid, while making a good wage and living an excellent life based on the wages and cost of living in central Illinois.

 

Snowflakes have been around for awhile....

 

And for some reason Catipiller and the Union never seemed to get along. It was like a militant group of peeps gained control of the local in Peoria or something. Deere&Co. never seemed to have the same labor issues and had similar workers at similar pay structure/benefits. The UAW and workers basically screwed themselves over the years. I mean Peoria isn’t exactly a hot bed of industry or think tanks. It’s just shameful that they had good paying jobs with excellent benefits but did nothing but complain about Cat management. Now the UAW is going through another round of fraud, extortion and skimming scandals, while more workers in Peoria remain unemployed/under employed.
I use to love that entire area of central Illinois but it’s a shit hole today comparable to what it once was.

 

if I’m remembering right, the Air Force stopped taking delivery of the new 767 tankers from Boeing. Debris in the fuel tanks was one of the issues.

 

Most of these issues are cropping up because of increased scrutiny. The media has really made the FAA and Boeing look stupid, so you now have an outraged government agency that is running amok with the certification process. They are now waiting for comment from EASA (the European safety agency) on every little issue.

An example of what is going on- instead of approving the software based on tests of the actual airplane, EASA are requesting the entire code and reviewing it line by line. Anyone who has ever worked with IT types can imagine what this process might be like.

Oversight is good, and it should be thorough, but to put a company like Boeing through something like this, when they build the safest products in the world.....well by now you guys know how I feel about it.

 

We should just start flying Sukhoi Superjets. Cause they are so good at QC and such.

Gotta be safer than that dangerous Boeing product.

 

I moved away Jan 85 after graduating college Dec 84. I was happy to have been raised there and actually Peoria is very pretty coming down Grandview Drive, or even coming into the river valley from Washington or East Peoria into Peoria. All the buildings right on the river and it is very lush in the spring/summer. But the winters are horrible.

I haven't been back in a few years, but when I was there, I didn't notice it was any worse than before.....I do notice it is nothing like California. I will also say people from the midwest are much easier to conduct business with. When I sold software for 20 years, I always liked the middle part of the country much better than working east or west coast deals. People were much more straight forward and you could close a deal on a handshake.

 

Wow, I can imagine and that is horrible. My degree was in computer science and I was originally a programmer, before I "lucked out" and was asked to help out in sales. Best thing that ever accidentally happened to me in my life.

 

Not like the European agency has any vested reason to slow down the American airliner manufacturer or anything...

 

Well they kind of do, don’t want this turd falling on their people.