Boeing worker in emails: Max ‘designed by clowns’
Workers mocked FAA, questioned safety of grounded plane
Boeing employees raised doubts among themselves about the safety of the 737 Max, hid problems from federal regulators and ridiculed those responsible for designing and overseeing the jetliner, according to a damning batch of emails and text messages released nearly a year after the aircraft was grounded over two catastrophic crashes.
The documents, made public Thursday by Boeing at the urging of Congress, fueled allegations the vaunted aircraft manufacturer put speed and cost savings ahead of safety in rolling out the Max. Boeing has been wracked by turmoil since the twin disasters and is still struggling to get the plane back in the air.
As if to underscore the point, the Federal Aviation Administration said it plans to fine Boeing $5.4 million for installing substandard parts on the wings of 178 of its 737 Max jetliners.
The FAA said that poor oversight of suppliers led Boeing to install tracks that could become brittle and weak because of mistakes during manufacturing.
In the 117 pages of internal messages released Thursday, Boeing employees talked about misleading regulators about problems with the company’s flight simulators, which are used to develop aircraft and then train pilots on new equipment. In one exchange, an employee told a colleague he or she wouldn’t let family members ride on a Max. The colleague agreed.
In a message chain from May 2018, an employee wrote: “I still haven’t been forgiven by God for covering up (what) I did last year.” It was not clear what the cover-up involved. The documents contain redactions and are full of Boeing jargon. The employees’ names were removed.
Employees also groused about Boeing’s senior management, the company’s selection of low-cost suppliers, wasting money and the Max. “This airplane is designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys,” one employee wrote.
Boeing has said that it is confident the flight simulators work properly but that the conversations raise questions about the company’s dealings with the FAA in getting the machines certified.
It said it is considering disciplinary action against some employees: “These communications do not reflect the company we are and need to be, and they are completely unacceptable.”
The Max has been grounded worldwide since March, after two crashes five months apart — one involving Indonesia’s Lion Air, the other an Ethiopian Airlines flight — killed 346 people. Investigators believe the crashes were caused when the jetliners’ new automated flight-control system mistakenly pushed the planes’ noses down.
Boeing is still working to fix the flight-control software and other systems on the Max and persuade regulators to let it fly again.
The work has taken much longer than Boeing expected, and it is unclear when the plane will return to the skies. Federal prosecutors in the meantime have opened a criminal investigation into the development and approval of the Max.