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More Boeing Bad News

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#701 Post by G-CPTN » Wed Sep 15, 2021 5:00 pm

We're sorry, but this video is not available.

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#702 Post by Undried Plum » Wed Sep 15, 2021 6:24 pm

This one, perhaps?


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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#703 Post by llondel » Wed Sep 15, 2021 7:59 pm

That looks like it. Obviously the page I linked to is restricted to the US.I hate it when sites do that.

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#704 Post by PHXPhlyer » Fri Sep 17, 2021 5:51 pm

Former Boeing pilot expected to face charges in 737 Max investigation

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/forme ... 1631848433

Federal prosecutors plan to criminally charge a former Boeing Co. pilot they suspect of misleading aviation regulators about safety issues blamed for two fatal crashes of the 737 Max, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mark Forkner, who was Boeing’s 737 Max chief technical pilot during the aircraft’s development, is likely to face prosecution in the coming weeks, these people said. In his former role, Forkner served as the plane maker’s lead contact with the Federal Aviation Administration for how airline pilots should be trained to fly the new jet.

It couldn’t be learned what formal charge or charges Forkner might face. Boeing BA, -0.50% admitted in a criminal settlement reached with prosecutors earlier this year that two of its employees — unnamed in that agreement — conspired to defraud the FAA about 737 Max training issues in order to benefit themselves and the company.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. Boeing declined to comment.

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#705 Post by PHXPhlyer » Mon Sep 20, 2021 7:28 pm

Boeing reportedly investigating empty tequila bottles found on a future Air Force One

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/20/business ... index.html

New York (CNN Business)Drinking alcohol and building planes don't really mix. That's why Boeing is reportedly investigating two small, empty tequila bottles that were found on one of the planes set to serve as the next Air Force One.

The plane is one of two 747 jumbo jets being modified to meet the needs of securely carrying the US president and staff. Although it's not a big part of Boeing's business, it is a high profile "halo" project that is important for bolstering the company's battered reputation. So any concerns involving the president's future jet is about the last thing Boeing needs.
The probe over the tequila bottles was reported Monday by the Wall Street Journal. The plane is being modified at a Boeing facility in San Antonio, and alcohol is banned at all Boeing factories.
Boeing would not confirm or deny the report, saying simply, "This is a personnel matter and for contractual reasons we are unable to comment further."
Boeing signed a contract with the government to modify the two planes in 2018 in a deal that will cost taxpayers $3.9 billion.
"Boeing informed the Air Force of a personnel matter related to the VC-25B program," said Ann Stefanik, chief of media operations for the US Air Force That's the name Boeing uses for the construction project, as the Air Force One designation is given to a plane only when the president is aboard.
"There is no impact to the ongoing modification efforts of the two aircraft," Stefanik added. "The Air Force ... monitors production quality closely and holds Boeing accountable to ensure the VC-25B program meets stringent quality control requirements."
Recent history of quality problems
This wouldn't be good news for Boeing at any time, but it's especially bad now.
The aircraft builder's reputation on quality has been badly damaged by numerous problems in recent years — most notably the 737 Max, which was grounded for 20 months after two fatal crashes that killed 346 people. The problems with the Max have cost the company more than $20 billion.
And in March 2019, just days after the second 737 Max crash, the Air Force's top acquisition official said Boeing had a "severe situation" with flawed inspections of the tanker aircraft it built for the Air Force when trash and tools were found in some planes after they were delivered.
Eleven months later Boeing disclosed it had found similar debris in the fuel tanks of several 737 Max jets that had been sitting in storage during the grounding. A couple of months later the New York Times reported additional quality problems at a Boeing factory in South Carolina that builds the 787 Dreamliner widebody jet.
Boeing denied there was a problem at the South Carolina factory. But later in 2020 the company was forced to recommend temporarily grounding some of 787s to inspect and repair parts of the fuselage. And in July this year it was forced to halt deliveries of the jet again due to additional concerns about quality control issues.

Meanwhile, the reported tequila bottle probe is not the first problem with Boeing's Air Force One project.
The planes were initially due to be delivered in 2024, but earlier this year Boeing disclosed it was seeking to delay delivery by about a year, and likely would seek more money as a result. Boeing cited both pandemic-related delays and its firing of a now-bankrupt subcontractor that had been doing much of the interior work on the jets.
— CNN's Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#706 Post by PHXPhlyer » Tue Sep 21, 2021 12:45 am

Which Countries Still Haven’t Recertified The Boeing 737 MAX?

https://simpleflying.com/which-countrie ... g-737-max/

Boeing’s 737 MAX is now allowed to fly in most countries, with India recently lifted its MAX ban. Of the countries still to allow the MAX to resume flying, China stands out. China is the biggest aviation market still to let the 737 MAX resume flights.

To date, some 175 countries have recertified Boeing’s 737 MAX. Photo: Boeing
One big country is lagging others
Following two fatal crashes in six months, airline regulators worldwide grounded the 737 MAX in March 2019. It wasn’t until November 2020 that the US regulator recertified the MAX. While the FAA is influential, most nations have their own safety regulators. Some, for a raft of reasons, took their time giving the MAX the green light.

Among the big airline markets, Brazil was one of the first countries out of the gate. Brazil allowed the MAX to fly again in November 2020. In December, Mexico gave the MAX the thumbs up to start flying again. The following month, in January 2021, both Canada and the EU cleared the MAX to resume flying.

Many smaller countries followed the lead of the larger nations. To date, around 175 countries have recertified the 737 MAX. Getting the MAX back in the air was particularly pertinent if airlines based in a particular country flew the type. But there were some laggards. India only recently fully cleared the 737 MAX to resume flying after initially allowing foreign airlines to fly the MAX in and out of Indian airspace in April.

Most countries followed the FAA’s lead in recertifying the 737 MAX. Photo: Boeing
China continues to lag other countries in recertifying the 737 MAX
Which brings us to China. There are many reasons why China is taking its time recertifying the 737 MAX. Not all of them are related to safety. Last month, a Boeing 737 MAX-7 flew to Shanghai to operate a series of test flights for Chinese regulators. However, according to The Global Times, a Beijing newspaper that many consider the voice of the Chinese Government, successful test flights won’t automatically lead to recertification.

“China’s civil aviation authorities always uphold three principles,” the newspaper quotes Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijia. “First, aircraft alteration must be approved for airworthiness. Second, pilots must be fully and effectively retrained. Third, the conclusion of the investigation of the two fatal accidents must be clear, and the improvement measures effective.”

The three biggest Chinese airlines, China Southern, Air China, and China Eastern, have 737 MAXs. Until recent years, one-quarter of all planes Boeing built went to China. But an ongoing trade war between China and the United States saw Boeing’s deliveries into China dry up. China is also putting a lot of emphasis on supporting homegrown aircraft manufacturer COMAC.

China’s cautious airline safety regulator
While China’s aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), has continued to work on recertifying the MAX, it is taking its time. Once having a patchy safety record, China has now not recorded a fatal commercial airline accident in over a decade, and the CAAC has grown into an ultra-cautious regulator.

That’s no bad thing, but as noted, there is more at play here than safety. Nonetheless, Boeing’s CEO Dave Calhoun has previously said he expects the 737 MAX back in the air in China by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, China remains the last significant airline market not to recertify the 737 MAX.

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#707 Post by PHXPhlyer » Wed Sep 22, 2021 5:28 pm

Ryanair and Boeing have fallen out in public. Here's why that matters

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/22/business ... index.html

New York (CNN Business)Boeing is being called out by Ryanair, one of its major customers, for not selling its jets more cheaply.

So far Boeing is standing fast and refusing to meet Ryanair's price demand, despite the hit its sales have taken the last two years.
On Tuesday Ryanair (RYAAY) CEO Michael O'Leary called Boeing's stand on pricing "delusional" and said the aircraft maker's demands for higher prices on future sales were "unjustified and inexplicable."
It's an unusually public dispute between two companies with a long and strong business relationship: Ryanair exclusively flies Boeing 737 jets. And it's a sign that demand for aircraft in general — and the troubled 737 Max in particular — has rebounded from pandemic lows faster than many thought possible. It's also a strong indicator that higher prices aren't just causing pain for consumers but also for businesses.
Part of Ryanair's business model is based on only flying different versions of the 737, allowing pilots to move seamlessly between planes without additional training and reducing the cost of keeping spare parts for different aircraft models on hand at various airports. Southwest Airlines (LUV), a low cost US carrier, has long followed such business model.
But the statements from O'Leary suggest the airline may consider making the jump to a 737 competitor.
"Europe's low cost carriers will drive jet demand for Airbus A320 family aircraft and not Boeing," O'Leary wrote in a letter Tuesday to Reuters that Ryanair provided to CNN. "If Boeing wants to sell aircraft in Europe, it needs to continue to be cost competitive and do a deal with Ryanair."
The 737 Max was grounded for 20 months after two fatal crashes that killed 346 people. In December, just a few weeks after the Federal Aviation Administration cleared the plane to resume carrying passengers, Ryanair announced one of the largest orders for the jet when it agreed to add 75 planes to its existing order of 135 aircraft. It took deliveries of its first 12 737 Max jets this past summer.
"Ryanair's board and people are confident that our customers will love these new aircraft. And, most of all, our customers will love the lower fares, which these aircraft will enable Ryanair to offer starting in 2021 and for the next decade," the Irish airline said at that time.
Ryanair was also up front that it expected to place an even bigger order for the next generation of the plane, the Max 10, once it is approved by the FAA. Boeing expects to start deliveries of the Max 10 in 2023.
"We are already in discussions with Boeing on the Max 10," Ryanair CFO Neil Sorahan told investors in February. "As soon as they start making them and delivering them, we would certainly be there looking to order them."
But earlier this month Ryanair revealed that talks on the 737 Max 10 collapsed, saying it was "clear that the pricing gap between the partners could not be closed and accordingly, both sides have agreed to waste no more time on these negotiations."
Boeing has "a more optimistic outlook on aircraft pricing than we do," O'Leary said in the statement, "and we have a disciplined track record of not paying high prices for aircraft."
Boeing (BA) has so far been reserved in its response to the comments as they come from such an important customer.
"Ryanair is a long-standing partner. We value their business and are committed to supporting them," Boeing said. "At the same time, we continue to be disciplined and make decisions that make sense for our customers and our company."
The aircraft manufacturer has seen a pickup in orders as airlines expect a recovery in demand for air travel. In March, United Airlines announced a massive order for 200 737 Max jets as well as 70 A321neos from Airbus, the biggest single jet order in the airline's history.
Many experts expect that Ryanair and Boeing will put their differences behind and quickly reach a deal on a new Max order.
"If pricing is firming up for the Max, it's got to be firming up for A320," said Richard Aboulafia, aerospace analyst with the Teal Group.

Aboulafia said that late last year Boeing was offering huge discounts of about 60% or more on its stated public price for the Max, as it worried about the grounding and the pandemic hurting demand for years.
The delivery delays caused by the grounding allowed 737 Max customers to cancel or threaten to cancel earlier orders to get better pricing. And Boeing had about 100 planes it built during the grounding for whom it no longer had customers.
"There's that bottom of the market desperation pricing that's very appealing, but that's not now," Aboulafia said. "We're past that. There are airline execs who would like to think when manufacturers lose pricing power, they never get it back. But that's not the way it works."
Ron Epstein, aerospace analyst for Bank of America, said it's possible that Ryanair could move to Airbus for future purchases, but that it's not the most likely outcome. He also thinks that Boeing will have to give on price.
"My guess is that Ryanair is playing hardball and eventually will get the Max at closer to the price they want," he said. "It's a a deal that Boeing doesn't want to lose and Ryanair knows it."

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#708 Post by Woody » Wed Oct 06, 2021 3:29 pm

Any bets on this order being taken over by IAG :-o
Leading UK holiday airline Jet2 (LS/EXS) has boosted Airbus’ order books by adding an additional 15 A321neo aircraft to its order.

The airline had ordered 36 of the single-aisle airliner to replace its ageing Boeing 757 and 737 fleet.

This increase brings the total ordered by Jet2 to 51.

Jet2’s A321neo aircraft will be configured with 232 seats and will feature the new Airbus airspace cabin with innovative lighting and larger overhead luggage bins.
When all else fails, read the instructions.

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#709 Post by Undried Plum » Wed Oct 06, 2021 3:57 pm

I've got some Boeing shares I wanna sell.

Anyone wanna buy 'em?I

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#710 Post by PHXPhlyer » Thu Oct 14, 2021 9:51 pm

Boeing finds new defect in continuing struggle to produce Dreamliner 787 :-o #-o

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerosp ... 021-10-14/

WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N) said on Thursday that some titanium 787 Dreamliner parts were improperly manufactured over the past three years, the latest in a series of problems to plague the wide-body aircraft.

The quality issue does not affect the immediate safety of flights, the company said, adding it had notified the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Boeing is working to determine how many planes contain the defective part.

Boeing said the parts were provided by Leonardo SpA (LDOF.MI), which bought the items from Italy-based Manufacturing Processes Specification (MPS). MPS is no longer a supplier to Leonardo, Leonardo confirmed. Shares in Italy's Leonardo extended losses and closed down 7%. Boeing shares closed down 2%.

Leonardo said in a statement the issues are ascribed to MPS. Leonardo said that MPS "is under scrutiny by prosecutors therefore Leonardo is (an) injured party and will not bear any potential costs associated with this issue."

Italian prosecutors could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

MPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. MPS is listed in Italy and some industry directives as Manufacturing Process Specification.

The parts include fittings that help secure the floor beam in one fuselage section, as well as other fittings, spacers, brackets, and clips within other assemblies.

Undelivered planes will be reworked, and planes already carrying passengers will go through a review process with Boeing and receive FAA confirmation.

The defect was found as the planemaker grapples with other problems in its 787 that have caused it to cut production and halt deliveries since May.

Problems started in September 2020 when the FAA said it was investigating manufacturing flaws. Airlines using that model removed eight jets from service.

Boeing was able to resume deliveries of the 787s in March after a five-month hiatus - only to halt them again in May after the FAA raised concerns about its proposed inspection method.

In July, the FAA said some Dreamliners had a manufacturing quality issue near the nose of the plane that must be fixed before Boeing can deliver to customers.

Earlier this month Leonardo's chief executive said Boeing was expected to release an updated production plan for its 787.

Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Anil D'Silva, Lisa Shumaker and David Gregorio

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#711 Post by PHXPhlyer » Fri Oct 15, 2021 1:17 am

Boeing’s former chief technical pilot on 737 MAX indicted on fraud charges

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/b ... for-fraud/

A federal grand jury in Texas on Thursday indicted Mark Forkner, 49, Boeing’s former chief technical pilot on the 737 MAX program, charging him with fraud.

This is the only criminal charge so far resulting from a Department of Justice investigation into two deadly MAX accidents that killed 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia.

The government came to a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with Boeing in January, in which the company acknowledged fraud and criminal misconduct during certification of the MAX.

The DPA slapped Boeing with a relatively small fine of $244 million and specifically exonerated Boeing’s senior management by stating that they had not facilitated the misconduct. However, the agreement cited Forkner and his deputy as being involved.

Thursday’s indictment alleges Forkner deceived both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Boeing’s airline customers by withholding information about the MAX’s new flight control system — called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS.

“In an attempt to save Boeing money, Forkner allegedly withheld critical information from regulators,” said Chad Meacham, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas. “His callous choice to mislead the FAA hampered the agency’s ability to protect the flying public and left pilots in the lurch, lacking information about certain 737 MAX flight controls.”

A trial could shed more light on why flaws in MCAS were overlooked during certification.

Forkner is charged with two counts of fraud involving aircraft parts in interstate commerce and four counts of wire fraud.

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count of wire fraud and 10 years in prison on each count of fraud involving aircraft parts in interstate commerce.

He is expected to make his initial court appearance Friday in Fort Worth, Texas. Forkner’s attorney David Gerger said Thursday he will have no comment before then.

Forkner’s role on the MAX from the jet’s launch in 2011 through its certification in 2017 was to win approval from the FAA and regulators around the world for the MAX’s technical manuals and pilot training on the new airplane.

He was required to identify for regulators all important differences between the controls on the MAX versus the previous 737 model.

Forkner told the FAA that pilots would never have to deal with MCAS and didn’t need to know about it. He persuaded them to remove all mention of it from the pilot handbook.

The Department of Justice said that around November 2016, while Boeing was flight testing the MAX ahead of certification, Forkner discovered Boeing engineers had made an important change to the MCAS software, so that it operated at certain lower-speed flight conditions instead of only in a high-speed turn as originally intended.

On discovering the change, Forkner in an instant message to his deputy made clear he realized that information he had previously given the FAA was no longer accurate. “So I basically lied to the regulators (unknowingly),” Forkner wrote.
However, Forkner never went back to the FAA to correct the misinformation.

This showed a “blatant disregard for his responsibilities and the safety of airline customers and crews,” FBI Assistant Director Calvin Shivers said in a statement.

Forkner became notorious in 2019 after Boeing turned over to the FAA a series of emails and instant message exchanges between Forkner and his deputy, Patrik Gustavsson.

In these exchanges, Forkner bragged about how he had “jedi mind tricked” airlines into choosing the minimum pilot training option.

Forkner described how he persuaded Lion Air officials who wanted to train their pilots on MAX simulators to drop the idea, telling them this was “a difficult and unnecessary training burden for your airline.”

Forkner in private messages then mocked the Lion Air representatives for their “stupidity” in asking for such training, and boasted that his efforts to dissuade them had saved Boeing “a sick amount of $$$$.”

Lion Air Flight JT610 was the first MAX to crash in October 2018, killing 189 people.

In a 2014 email, Forkner wrote that avoiding the need for full flight simulator pilot training, which would cost the airlines a lot of money, was a key imperative from the leadership of the MAX program.

Forkner joked that if he failed to prevent regulators from requiring full simulator training, he would be burned at the stake.

Boeing’s leadership had guaranteed Southwest Airlines a $1 million refund per airplane if the plane’s certification required the carrier to train its pilots on simulators.

In the end, the MAX’s certification required pilots familiar with the previous 737 model to take only a couple of hours training on a computer.

Forkner did not cooperate with the Department of Justice investigation into the jet’s certification and invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid turning over documents when subpoenaed by federal prosecutors.
He left Boeing to fly for Southwest Airlines in 2018, three months before that fatal crash. He left Southwest a year ago. Forkner currently lives in Keller, Texas, according to the indictment.

The DPA, much criticized for the way it let Boeing executives off the hook, was handled by the then-U.S. Attorney in the northern district of Texas, Erin Nealy Cox.

Cox left the Department of Justice after the agreement and in June joined Kirkland & Ellis, Boeing’s lead corporate criminal defense law firm. On Kirkland’s website, she was welcomed to the firm as a partner by Mark Filip, who had signed the DPA on behalf of Boeing.

Forkner’s indictment was brought by Alex Lewis, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the northern district of Texas.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com; on Twitter:

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#712 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Oct 15, 2021 1:50 am

Forkner, in his hubris, has tried to fly to close to the sun! Auden had it about right!
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just
walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy
life and the torturer’s horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#713 Post by PHXPhlyer » Wed Oct 27, 2021 4:19 pm

Boeing's 737 Max problems are improving, but plenty of other issues loom New York

(CNN Business)Boeing's 737 Max troubles are improving, the company's quarterly results released Wednesday showed — but it's facing a host of other problems.

The aircraft maker increased production of the Max to 19 a month in the third quarter, up from 16 a month in the quarter prior. Boeing added that it "continues to progress towards a production rate of 31 per month in early 2022."
That's good news about the Max, which had been grounded for 20 months in 2019 and 2020 following two crashes that killed 346 people. It was approved to fly passengers in the United States late last year and is in service in most of the world but not yet in China, a key market for air travel.
But Boeing's other issues continue to loom.

In July it halted deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner after disclosing the planes' fuselage was not joined together to meet precise standards. Getting production of both the Max and the Dreamliner back to normal is key for Boeing's recovery from the Covid-fueled decimation of air travel — and the news about the Dreamliner isn't good.
Boeing said Wednesday it has cut production of the 787 Dreamliner to only two a month, down sharply from the five each month that it was building earlier in the year.
Plus, the Dreamliner's quality problems will result in a total of $1 billion of unanticipated costs. It booked $183 million of those costs in the most recent quarter.
Ten years on, is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner still more dream than nightmare?
Ten years on, is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner still more dream than nightmare?
Boeing also took a $185 million charge for the latest problems with its Starliner space capsule program designed to take astronauts and perhaps space tourists to the International Space Station. The company revealed in August problems with its propulsion system are worse than initially anticipated, putting yet another lengthy delay on the horizon. A second uncrewed orbital test flight is now anticipated in mid-2022, the company said.
Overall the company reported core operating income of $59 million. That's isharply lower than the $755 million it made in the second quarter — but much better than the $754 million it lost a year earlier. Its adjusted net loss for the quarter was $350 million, worse than analysts expected.
Shares of Boeing (BA), a Dow component, were narrowly lower in early hours.

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#714 Post by PHXPhlyer » Fri Nov 05, 2021 3:50 pm

Boeing shareholders reach settlement in 737 MAX board oversight suit

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/busine ... t-n1283315

Boeing Co.'s current and former directors have reached an agreement of about $225 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit that claimed the plane maker's board failed to properly oversee safety matters related to the 737 MAX, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

As part of the proposed settlement, Boeing has agreed to hire an ombudsman to handle internal issues and appoint a board member with experience in aviation safety, according to the report on Thursday.

Boeing declined to comment.

In September, a Delaware judge denied the company's move to dismiss the suit, ruling that Boeing's board of directors must face a lawsuit from shareholders over two fatal 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people in less than six months.

The monetary portion of the settlement would be paid by directors' insurers to the corporation, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the agreement.

The settlement, expected to be filed in Delaware's Court of Chancery as soon as Friday, isn't expected to include an admission of wrongdoing on the part of the directors, including Boeing Chief Executive Officer David Calhoun, according to the report.

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#715 Post by PHXPhlyer » Thu Nov 11, 2021 11:05 pm

Boeing accepts sole responsibility for 737 MAX crashes, wins agreement that avoids punitive damages

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/b ... e-damages/

Boeing’s lawyers filed a joint court motion Wednesday with the lawyers for the families of the 157 people who died in the 737 MAX crash in Ethiopia, accepting sole liability for the fatal accident and laying out a process to settle almost all the claims.

“The defendant, Boeing, has admitted that it produced an airplane that had an unsafe condition that was a proximate cause of Plaintiff’s compensatory damages caused by the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 accident,” the filing states.

Boeing explicitly agreed that the pilots were not at fault.

It also exonerated two MAX suppliers: the company that built the jet’s angle of attack sensor and the one that produced, to Boeing’s specification, the aircraft’s faulty flight control software.

The motion includes what’s called a stipulation — a binding agreement on the settlement process — that was signed by all but two of the families.

As reported Tuesday by The Seattle Times, the stipulation means compensatory damages for each individual claim will be decided either in mediation or in court in Illinois, where Boeing is headquartered. Boeing agrees not to try to force overseas families, many of them in Africa, to seek damages in their home countries, where damages would be far lower.

In a statement Wednesday, Boeing said the agreement “allows the parties to focus their efforts on determining the appropriate compensation for each family.”

“Boeing is committed to ensuring that all families who lost loved ones in the accidents are fully and fairly compensated for their loss,” the statement adds.

What Boeing gets from the agreement is an explicit exclusion of any claim for punitive damages and an end to legal discovery processes or depositions that would seek further evidence of wrongdoing by Boeing.

“The jury shall not hear evidence on issues of liability,” the stipulation states. “The parties further agree that no evidence or argument about punitive damages will properly be the subject of discovery or be admitted.”

Ralph Nader, the longtime consumer advocate known for using tort law to hold corporations to account, called it “a strange settlement without Boeing having to guarantee any dollars whatsoever.”

Samya Rose Stumo, 24, the daughter of Nader’s niece, died in the ET 302 crash, and her family is one of the two that have not signed the stipulation.

In a statement, Nader noted that the compensatory damages will be paid by Boeing’s insurers. He sharply criticized the lack of potential punitive damages, which would have to be paid by Boeing, and the abandonment of legal discovery and depositions of top executives.

“The great American tort law system, assuring individual justice against wrongdoers, has been reduced to a collective slap on Boeing’s wing,” Nader said.

Boeing’s acceptance of liability is the closest it has come to a full admission of blame for the two deadly MAX crashes that killed 346 people: Lion Air Flight JT 610 in Indonesia in 2018, followed just over four months later by the crash in Ethiopia.

However, it still falls short of telling the world exactly what went wrong in the design and certification of the MAX, how it happened and who was responsible.


What caused both MAX crashes was the faulty activation of new flight control software on the jet — the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS — that forced both planes into a nose dive.

MCAS was designed with a single point of failure. It was designed so that it activated repeatedly rather than one time when that single failure happened. And it was designed to push the nose down with such power that the pilot couldn’t sufficiently counter it by pulling on the control column alone.

Boeing fixed all these design flaws in the software update that has allowed the MAX to return to service.

Yet the company has never publicly accepted that the MCAS design was deeply flawed as certified, except to say that its design and testing should have taken more account of typical pilot skills and pilot reaction time — a formulation that pointed some blame at the pilots.

However, the court motion Wednesday walks back public statements in 2019 by then-CEO Dennis Muilenburg, and private suggestions by Boeing officials to U.S. pilot groups, that the Ethiopian Airlines crew shared some blame for the crash.

Boeing states in the filing that it does “not ascribe fault to the Pilot (Captain), Co-Pilot (First Officer) or seek contributory or comparative negligence against them.”

Boeing’s statement that it is solely liable — “Boeing does not blame nor allege that any other person or entity was responsible” — also means two of its suppliers named in the original complaint are let free of any liability.

All claims against Rosemount Aerospace, a unit of Rockwell Collins, which designed and built the MAX’s angle of attack sensor, and parent company Rockwell Collins, which supplied the MCAS software, “are hereby dismissed with prejudice and without costs,” the stipulation states.

Data from the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 black box suggests the angle of attack sensor that failed and triggered an activation of MCAS was instantaneously knocked out just as the plane left the ground, possibly by a bird strike.

And though it was the activation of MCAS that brought the plane down six minutes later, the flaws in the design of the software were Boeing’s. The manufacturer has admitted that Rockwell Collins produced the software to the specification Boeing had requested.

The financial compensation that each family will receive is still to be worked out in lengthy proceedings that will consider the lives of those lost and each family’s circumstances.

The agreement states the families are entitled to “the full measure of damages permitted under Illinois law.”

The damages are to be weighed in the same terms for every family “regardless of the citizenship, residency, domicile or nationality of any Plaintiff or decedent.”

This will include consideration of “loss of economic support; loss of services; loss of society; grief, sorrow and mental suffering of the decedent’s next of kin; loss of consortium; loss of instruction, moral training, and superintendence; burial expenses; pain and suffering and emotional distress of the decedent.”

The agreement states that the lawyers for the families will be permitted to use legal discovery to access material such as the data from the flight recorders. That will allow them to create an animation showing what the passengers experienced during the six minutes of the flight to illustrate the terror and suffering of those who died.

The final financial cost to Boeing won’t be decided for many months. However, the boundaries that the agreement puts on the claims remove an overhang of uncertainty on the company.

With the possibility of further revelations of wrongdoing in court proceedings now remote, Boeing’s leaders can leave it to lawyers to work out the precise compensation amounts while they move on.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @dominicgates.

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#716 Post by Woody » Fri Nov 12, 2021 8:08 pm

I flew from JNB to CPT on BA/ Comair 737- 800 , as it’s known as instead of Max. Is this a first for an Ops- Normal member?
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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#717 Post by PHXPhlyer » Fri Nov 12, 2021 8:18 pm

I deadheaded on two or three a few years ago before I got fired for having a birthday and they got grounded.
Stuck my head in up front to check it out and talked to the guys driving.
Big screens were the most notable difference and the guys said that a few systems were more automated ala Airbus, but otherwise it was still a 737 albeit one that we didn't know was waiting to try to kill.

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#718 Post by Woody » Tue Nov 16, 2021 2:18 pm

First public display of B-777X

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#719 Post by PHXPhlyer » Fri Nov 19, 2021 5:03 pm

Airbus smashes orders at Dubai Air Show, Boeing trails behind despite big 737 Max sale

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/18/airbus- ... ehind.html

KEY POINTS
The aircraft order numbers so far from the first major air show since the Covid-19 pandemic began are a positive sign for aviation and travel.
French manufacturer Airbus amassed 408 announced orders and commitments by the end of the show’s fourth day.
Cargo planes and converted freighters are in demand as e-commerce booms and air shipment grows.
In this article


Benoit Tessier | Reuters
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Airbus kicked off the 2021 Dubai Air Show with a bang, landing massive deals from day one.

The French aerospace manufacturer had amassed 408 announced orders and commitments by the end of the show’s fourth day, Wednesday, while its American counterpart Boeing trailed with 101. Airbus and Boeing are the world’s two largest aerospace companies by revenue.

The order numbers so far from the first major air show since the Covid-19 pandemic began are a positive sign for aviation and travel, which suffered devastating losses for much of the last 18 months. “We view orders for new aircraft as positive for the recovery of the commercial aerospace industry,” Morgan Stanley said in a research note Wednesday.

Airbus scored its first big win on day one of the air show, with an order for 255 of its narrow-body A321neo and A321XLR jets from American private equity firm Indigo Partners, which buys planes for low-cost carriers like Frontier, Wizz Air, Jetsmart and Volaris.

It then notched a letter of intent from Air Lease Corp, set to be finalized in the coming months, for 111 aircraft across the Airbus product range: 55 A321neos, 25 A220-300s, 20 A321XLRs, seven A350F freighters and four A330neos.

Airbus CEO says deal for A321s was a ‘very positive signal’
The deal from Indigo Partners, the first major aircraft order since the pandemic began, was a “very positive signal that we [are starting] to be on the front foot again,” Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told CNBC during the show.

Kuwaiti airline Jazeera Airways committed to 28 Airbus A321neos, and Nigeria’s Ibom Air committed to its first Airbus purchase with an order for 10 A220s.

The popularity of narrow-body jets at this year’s air show came as a surprise to some analysts, who say the Middle East event is more known for orders of wide-body planes used for longer-haul flights.

On the military side, Airbus also sold two A330 Multi Role Tanker Transports, an aerial refueling tanker aircraft, to the UAE Air Force and Air Defense, and clinched a new export order for two A400M airlifters from the Indonesian Ministry of Defense.

Boeing saw some relief on Tuesday with a large order of 72 of its 737 Max from new Indian airline Akasa Air. It also had success with freighters, with orders for 11 of its 737-800BCF cargo planes from aircraft leasing company Icelease, nine converted 767-300BCF freighters from DHL, and orders for two of its long-range 777F freighters from Emirates SkyCargo.

The American aerospace giant also received four orders of passenger planes and freighters from Air Tanzania and three of its widebody 777-300 passenger jets from UAE-based aviation services provider Sky One FZE.

We expect more orders before the year end, says Boeing executive vice president
Cargo planes and converted freighters are a hot sub-sector of the aviation industry as e-commerce booms and air shipment grows. Cargo is the only air traffic segment that has gone above 2019 levels. For Dubai’s flagship carried Emirates Airline alone, cargo operations in its latest half-year earnings were robust, seeing a 39% increase and bringing the business to 90% of the volume it had pre-pandemic.

“The freighter markets are on fire right now. That’s where we see real growth,” Stan Deal, executive vice president of Boeing, told CNBC in Dubai on Sunday.

The company plans to add three conversion lines — facilities that convert aircraft to freighters — for its 737-800BCF across North America and Europe.

Boeing has long dominated the air cargo market, but its French rival Airbus could threaten that with its A350F, a cargo version of its widebody passenger A350-1000, ordered for the first time in Dubai this week.

Emirates president says the airline is making a profit — despite 80 aircraft still on the ground
Boeing’s much-anticipated 777FX — the freighter version of its long-range widebody 777X passenger jet — did not launch at the Dubai show. Boeing has also been facing criticism from Emirates President Tim Clark over delivery delays and technical problems with its 777X, which Emirates has ordered but whose delivery has been pushed back to 2023.

The iconic American manufacturer hasn’t been viewed as having a winning performance at a Dubai Air Show since 2017, when the company clinched a major sale of 40 787-10 jets to Emirates Airline at a value of $15.1 billion on the show’s first day alone.

Ahead of the 2019 Dubai Air Show, Boeing’s sales were badly hit following two catastrophic crashes of its popular 737 Max jet in less than five months. Its fleet of roughly 400 737 Max jets around the world were grounded for nearly two years.

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Re: More Boeing Bad News

#720 Post by PHXPhlyer » Tue Nov 23, 2021 7:20 pm

FAA memo reveals more Boeing 787 manufacturing defects, including contamination of carbon fiber composites

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/b ... omposites/

By Dominic Gates
Seattle Times aerospace reporter
The litany of manufacturing defects on the 787 Dreamliner is expanding as Boeing engineers take apart planes and discover new or more widespread issues, a Federal Aviation Administration internal memo indicates.

The FAA memo, which was circulated internally Monday and reviewed by The Seattle Times, points to new concerns about a previously unreported defect caused by contamination of the carbon fiber composite material during fabrication of the large structures that make up the 787’s wing, fuselage and tail.

The memo also adds detail about the small out-of-tolerance gaps that have been discovered throughout the airplane structure: at the joins of the large fuselage sections, at a forward pressure bulkhead and in the structure surrounding the passenger and cargo doors.

The FAA memo, which lists safety conditions affecting airplanes currently in service worldwide, states that these tiny gap defects are thought to be present in more than 1,000 Dreamliners. These are not considered an immediate safety concern but could cause premature aging of the airframe.

“We’re looking at the undelivered airplanes nose to tail, and we have found areas where the manufacturing does not conform to the engineering specifications,” a Boeing spokesperson said Friday. “None of these issues is an immediate safety-of-flight issue.”

Those planes currently in service can be inspected and reworked later during routine maintenance, the spokesperson said.

However, complicating the process, the FAA memo states that Boeing doesn’t have the detailed configuration data on each plane to know which may have the defects.

It’s unclear if coming up with fixes that will satisfy the FAA will further delay resumption of 787 deliveries into next year.

Such a delay could increase the total cost to get the 787 program back on track above Boeing’s previous $1 billion estimate and would risk an accounting write-off in the fourth quarter.

Contamination of composite material
The internal FAA memo relates how, early this year, Boeing reported to the FAA that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan — which builds the jet’s carbon composite wings — had discovered contamination of the composite material during fabrication that could potentially weaken the bonding when two composite parts are bonded together with adhesives.

For example, when a stiffening rod is bonded to the inside of the wing skin.

In the fabrication process for composites, carbon fiber tape impregnated with epoxy resin is laid on a mold, then hardened in a high-pressure oven called an autoclave.

Bags are placed around the composite material to create a vacuum, and a thin sheet may be placed between the composites and the mold to facilitate release when it comes out of the autoclave. The contamination occurred because some of the bagging and release materials contained polytetrafluoroethylene — commonly known by the brand name Teflon.

The use of PTFE, which left a residue after removal, did not comply with Boeing’s manufacturing specifications.

Initial tests conducted by Boeing and reported to the FAA in April showed a positive outcome: although the bond strength was reduced, it was still within the design limits.
However, the memo includes a new update from late last month, in which Boeing told the FAA that the same contamination has now been found at other major suppliers and affects not only the wing but also the fuselage and tail.

In addition, further tests of small pieces of the composites now indicated that the strength of the bond between contaminated parts in some cases was below the allowed design limits.

Boeing last month suggested to the FAA an approach to evaluating the integrity of the bonds in the affected structures. But the FAA isn’t convinced. It responded that the proposed evaluation method is not approved and not validated by testing.

“The FAA will investigate,” the memo states.

Boeing’s communications team said Friday it did not immediately have details on the contamination issue and could not comment on that specific issue before press time.

An FAA spokesperson said, “We don’t comment on ongoing discussions with manufacturers.”

Fixing tiny gaps at the airplane doors
The FAA memo also highlights the discovery of small gaps in the structure surrounding the passenger and cargo doors in the aft fuselage section, built by Leonardo in Italy.

This is another instance of the tiny gaps that have been discovered in the airplane structure during final assembly, previously found at the major fuselage section joins and at the forward pressure bulkhead, a dome-shaped structural barrier behind the plane’s nose that is crucial to maintaining air pressure within the cockpit and passenger cabin.

Like those previous instances, the gaps in the structure around the aft fuselage doors result from waviness in the composite material at the joins.

The FAA notes that these discrepancies between the manufactured structure and the engineering specification are the result not of bad workmanship by mechanics, but of imprecision in the robotic equipment used to fabricate the airplane’s structures.

Such gaps, which may occur in metal airplanes, too, are typically filled with small pieces of material called shims during assembly. But somehow the gaps were missed during the building of the airplane sections by Boeing suppliers.

The lack of shims can cause the skin fasteners to pull away, the FAA said.

The FAA memo notes that Leonardo relies on mechanics to inspect their own work when they assemble the structures, with limited or no oversight by quality inspectors. And it states that the Italian supplier had two formal notices of missed inspections for surface waviness in 2018 and two more in 2020.

In an update this month, the FAA said that although Boeing provided a presentation contending that the gaps in the structure around the aft fuselage doors were within engineering requirements, it did not provide detailed manufacturing data on the condition of assembly of each plane.

The memo declares the FAA “skeptical.”

As it awaits FAA approval of an inspection method, Boeing is going ahead with fixes on some planes.

The Boeing spokesperson said that its engineers had been trying to come up with a standard procedure to remove the doors and inspect the surrounding structure that would satisfy the FAA, but that because this was taking too long it had begun reworking some initial planes.

“We have been trying to determine a door removal and inspection approach to see [if we can] plan a nondestructive inspection method to determine what we need to do going forward. That’s taken more time,” the spokesperson said. “So we have started rework on the door structure just in the near term, to try to be able to move forward with certain airplanes.”

Meanwhile, Boeing has paused assembly of the aft fuselages in South Carolina while it sorts out the problem.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report Friday the latest issue with the structure around the door. The Journal cited unidentified people familiar with the plans saying that it is increasingly likely that Boeing won’t resume delivering 787s until “February or March at the earliest.”

1,000-plus airplanes
The FAA memo reviewed by The Seattle Times also provides updates on another 787 defect problem: the use of an incorrect alloy of titanium in certain fittings installed in fuselage sections made by Leonardo in Italy.

Parts with this incorrect metal included fuselage frame and floor beam fittings and were installed on more than 450 Dreamliners. Boeing identified the most critical installation as the floor-beam-to-fuselage-frame fittings at the side of body area where the wings attach.

The FAA said this could produce an unsafe condition if two or more adjacent fittings had used the wrong titanium alloy. Two aircraft with this immediate safety concern were identified, both All Nippon Airways jets that were parked in Victorville, California.

ANA agreed to keep the aircraft grounded while Boeing fixed them. That work was completed as of last month.

Finally, the memo notes that the FAA is still evaluating Boeing’s proposal to use statistical sampling to determine which airplanes are affected by the lack of shims and tiny gaps at the joins.

The memo states that more than 1,000 airplanes currently flying are affected and that the FAA is concerned about the lack of detailed assembly data on every airplane. Boeing submitted its proposal for inspections and indicated that the process would not require FAA approval.

“We firmly disagree,” the memo states. This standoff over what level of inspections is appropriate remains the major stumbling block to Boeing resuming 787 deliveries.

Correction: This story was updated early Saturday to correct the description of the composites contamination problem. The Teflon residue doesn’t reduce the strength of the part. Rather it reduces the strength of the join when two such composite parts are bonded together with adhesives.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @dominicgates.

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