Countries around the world have grounded Boeing Co.’s 737 Max 8 airline, after crashes of a Lion Air flight in October and an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March left 346 people dead.
A site leader the South Carolina factory which produces Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner have claimed complaints the company is compromising safety with its “shoddy production” and “weak oversight” only “paints a skewed and inaccurate picture of the program and of our team”.
The New York Times was first to publish a report about the complaints on Saturday. Citing a sea of internal emails, federal and corporate documents, and interviews with current and former staffers as evidence, the Times claimed in their report that Boeing turned a blind eye to the alleged problems raised by employees, instead focussing solely on turning out planes more quickly
This led to manufacturing defects and the discovery of potentially dangerous debris and even tools left inside completed planes, the outlet reported.
Obviously, Boeing denied the claims made in the Times’ report.
Al Jazeera captured footage showing 10 workers at the Charleston plant saying they would not fly on the planes they were building.
“I wouldn’t fly on one of these planes,” a worker told his colleague, “because I see the quality of the f****** s*** going down around here.”
Another said, “We’re not building them to fly. We’re building them to sell. You know what I’m saying?”
Boeing had stood behind the plane it created for several days following the Ethiopian crash, saying, “we have full confidence in the safety of the 737 MAX.” They have since complied with the FAA’s grounding of the fleet.
According to Boeing’s website, the 210-seat MAX 8, which debuted in 2017 and was first flown by Southwest in the U.S., was designed to be a more comfortable, reliable and fuel efficient way to travel. It’s also the fastest selling plane in the company’s history, accumulating 4,700 orders worldwide to date.
Would you feel safe travelling to a trade event, business meeting or family vacation with these claims looming? Let me know your thoughts.
