Boeing Chairman, President, and CEO penned an open letter to “airlines, passengers, and the aviation community” on Boeing’s commitment to safety. It’s worth a few minutes of your time to read and consider.
I have included the full text of the letter below, but if you prefer to listen, a video recording of the letter is directly below:
We know lives depend on the work we do, and our teams embrace that responsibility with a deep sense of commitment every day. Our purpose at Boeing is to bring family, friends and loved ones together with our commercial airplanes—safely. The tragic losses of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and Lion Air Flight 610 affect us all, uniting people and nations in shared grief for all those in mourning. Our hearts are heavy, and we continue to extend our deepest sympathies to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board.
Safety is at the core of who we are at Boeing, and ensuring safe and reliable travel on our airplanes is an enduring value and our absolute commitment to everyone. This overarching focus on safety spans and binds together our entire global aerospace industry and communities. We’re united with our airline customers, international regulators and government authorities in our efforts to support the most recent investigation, understand the facts of what happened and help prevent future tragedies. Based on facts from the Lion Air Flight 610 accident and emerging data as it becomes available from the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 accident, we’re taking actions to fully ensure the safety of the 737 MAX. We also understand and regret the challenges for our customers and the flying public caused by the fleet’s grounding.
Work is progressing thoroughly and rapidly to learn more about the Ethiopian Airlines accident and understand the information from the airplane’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders. Our team is on-site with investigators to support the investigation and provide technical expertise. The Ethiopia Accident Investigation Bureau will determine when and how it’s appropriate to release additional details.
Boeing has been in the business of aviation safety for more than 100 years, and we’ll continue providing the best products, training and support to our global airline customers and pilots. This is an ongoing and relentless commitment to make safe airplanes even safer. Soon we’ll release a software update and related pilot training for the 737 MAX that will address concerns discovered in the aftermath of the Lion Air Flight 610 accident. We’ve been working in full cooperation with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Transportation and the National Transportation Safety Board on all issues relating to both the Lion Air and the Ethiopian Airlines accidents since the Lion Air accident occurred in October last year.
Our entire team is devoted to the quality and safety of the aircraft we design, produce and support. I’ve dedicated my entire career to Boeing, working shoulder to shoulder with our amazing people and customers for more than three decades, and I personally share their deep sense of commitment. Recently, I spent time with our team members at our 737 production facility in Renton, Wash., and once again saw firsthand the pride our people feel in their work and the pain we’re all experiencing in light of these tragedies. The importance of our work demands the utmost integrity and excellence—that’s what I see in our team, and we’ll never rest in pursuit of it.
Our mission is to connect people and nations, protect freedom, explore our world and the vastness of space, and inspire the next generation of aerospace dreamers and doers—and we’ll fulfill that mission only by upholding and living our values. That’s what safety means to us. Together, we’ll keep working to earn and keep the trust people have placed in Boeing.
Dennis Muilenburg
Chairman, President and CEO
The Boeing Company
My Thoughts
Boeing has a “heavy heart” and “deepest sympathies” for those who perished in the pair of Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashes. It promises to “make safe airplanes even safer.” Muilenburg stresses, “Safety is at the core of who we are at Boeing, and ensuring safe and reliable travel on our airplanes is an enduring value and our absolute commitment to everyone.”
Fine.
But safety is not the only concern. If it was, certain safety packages would not have been optional. If it was, Muilenburg would not have personally pleaded with President Trump not to ground the 737 MAX in the USA. And if it was, Boeing would not have taken so long to issue a software update on the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS).
See, I would have appreciated a robust defense of safety while arguing that perfect safety is simply not possible and that profit motive is a dangerous incentive to cut corners.
At least that would have been more honest. But of course, that was not feasible.
CONCLUSION
This is a classic case of show don’t tell. We can all nod in agreement with Boeing’s expressed commitment to safety, but the words ring hollow absent a serious, sustained, and most importantly successful effort to ensure that every one of its customers fully understands the unique and seemingly problematic features of the 737 MAX family.
Two of three boxes checked. Is he also republican?
I understand that some families of victims in Lion Air incident have appointed US lawyers to file a suit against Boeing. Will Boeing continue to extend deepest sympathies by settlement and apologize personally?
Don’t be silly. Thoughts and prayers are usually enough.
Sarcasm?
Agreed. If Boeing was so committed to safety, they wouldn’t have released the 737Max with a single point of failure, with optional equipment toanage that single point of failure and would not have arm-twisted the FAA to launching the plane without training for the pilots to deal with this single point of failure….
Profits won over safety and hundreds of people paid with their lives….
Boeing, the FAA, the airlines all share responsibility in this tragedy…
This plane is not safe at all…
I wonder if anyone believes the bullshit coming out of his mouth. I mean other than flat earthers, anti-vaxers, and Trump supporters.
So, Boeing is going to release software updates and related pilot training to address ‘concerns’ discovered in the aftermath of the crashes…
Concerns? When an automaker (or any manufacturer) issues a recall, they don’t do it to address concerns; they do it to address FLAWS. Boeing should just be honest and admit this.
What a puff piece. As Matthew mentioned, if safety were *truly* a concern, vital safety equipment wouldn’t be sold as a more expensive option. Two new airplanes going down in such a short amount of time is a statistical outlier in this age of incredibly safe aviation – why would he urge the planes continue flying versus doing a self-imposed grounding to identify the issue and implement a solution. Even if it is as simply as a lack of training/knowledge, why risk another single life until every single MAX pilot has the most current training and operational information. This is a big stain on a company I’ve historically respected. I’m sure COMAC is drooling at this opportunity to edge their way into what was a 2 man race.
Ridiculous. Boeing has taken a shortcut and produced an unstable plane. They just hung some too heavy engines on a body that was designed during the Vietnam war. Point of gravity has changed and is tilting the nose, and they try to camouflage that with a software manipulation.
You can polish a turd but it remains shit.
I’m going to respectfully disagree with some of your conclusions.
First the decision not to offer every possibly safety option as standard equipment is the norm not only with aircraft manufacturers but also with auto makers and other as well. The absence of these options does not render the product unsafe and does not mean its builder isn’t committed to safety. Should we be demanding that all airliners have 4 engines because 4 is better than 2 for safety? Should we demand that airlines make fleet wide retrofits every time a new safety feature is developed regardless of cost? I’m sure you can see this becomes a slippery slope.
Second, there is nothing wrong with Boeing’s CEO arguing against grounding the MAX. Consider that Lion Air was at its root a pilot error event. If the crew on that flight had followed the procedure for a trim runaway (as the crew on the preceding flight did) the accident would not have happened. And if Ethiopian shares a common cause then the magnitude of the pilot error becomes even more pronounced. I would have expected nothing less from Muilenburg on behalf of his US customers who knew full well the airplane did not need to be grounded.
Third, I think its unfair to criticize Boeing for the length of time its taken to get the software update done. Updates of that nature are complex and you absolutely want to take the time to make sure your getting it right. You need to be sure that you’ve considered all the variables especially in light of why the update is being done. Then the various regulators need time to review and sign off on the change. Especially considering that the malfunction is easily overcome and that crews have just been advised and reminded how to respond there was no need to rush out an update.
The real question we should be asking is not what is wrong with the MAX but what is wrong with the pilots at these carriers? Why were they unable to handle what should have been a simple trim runaway? As an airline pilot I consider my profession to be a sacred trust. Every time I turn left into the cockpit I know that I have wives, moms, dads, husbands, kids who are depending on me to do my job with the utmost of skill and professionalism. They have a right to expect that should things go wrong that I am fully prepared and capable of applying my training to manage those problems. Do people outside the US deserve any less from their pilots? Should we not expect the crew of an airliner to be able to handle malfunctions in accordance with their training and procedures?
I’m not the only one asking these questions either it seems.
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2019/march/20/congressman-concerned-about-foreign-pilot-training
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2019/march/21/aopa-safety-expert-weighs-in-on-boeing-crisis
We hold bartenders responsible for not cutting off patrons whi subsequently cause accidents. Boeing did be held responsible for any crashes due to lack of b pilot training with a new plane.
Thank you 121Pilot for your balanced and professional opinion.
I don’t believe anyone could have explained it better.
God bless you.
@121Pilot: Thanks for your well-reasoned comments. My hunch is that time will show that your position is probably the right one.
Totally agree with your take on this.
This goes to the very heart of air safety: that safety features should be in place to accommodate the poorest pilot and weakest airline rather than the best. It is simply outrageous that Boeing marketing this flying coffin as needing no additional training than earlier, comparable 737 models. The very fact that they now mandate the additional safety mechanisms suggests they know they got this badly wrong. This CEO should be kicked out on his arse, pronto.
Hmmm…. Not including the latest system update in a manual considered to be optional? Judging safety based on a politician opinion? Oh well…. As long as someone is voicing what the author of this blog preferred, it may be well-reasoned it seems.
To paraphrase an old Boeing catch phrase: If it’s a Boeing, I’m not going. At least until they do enough to restore confidence and their planes are certified as safe by the EU regulator.
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
Allah will punish him for his obsessive greed. When he dies, he will spend the rest of his life in the hell fire. He is a bad horrible CEO. They should fire him and lock him up. Lock him up.
Why CEO and stuff did not allready proove 737 safety by taking all Boeing stuff including him in a flight with 737max…