Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has been criticized for his response to the latest Boeing 737 MAX 9 drama by a leading left-wing publication. I’m much more willing to give Buttigieg the benefit of the doubt.
Should Pete Buttigieg Be Doing More After Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 Emergency Landing?
The Nation, a progressive magazine founded in 1865 as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, took Buttigieg to task for his responses to recent tragedies like the Southwest Airlines meltdown in 2022, the Northfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio, and now the emergency landing of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 a week ago after part of the fuselage blew off at 16,000 feet.
Buttigieg has responded to each of these calamities in the spirit of crisis management, prioritizing the offering of soothing public relations messages over trying to find the root causes of problems. He seems to think his main job is to assure the American people that the system is in good working order rather than preventing repeated calamities…
With the Alaska Airlines disaster, Buttigieg has again taken the approach of going to the public with the reassuring message that there’s nothing to worry about and the system is fundamentally sound.
Sometimes the most effective and meaningful criticism comes from our ideological allies instead of from our opponents. So does The Nation have a point that Buttigieg is “reactive rather than proactive, offering after-the-fact solutions rather than looking at the systematic problems that are bedevilling American transportation.”?
I don’t sell myself as a safety expert. But I have followed the aviation industry closely for 20 years, written about it for 14 of those years, and I know many pilots, airline mechanics, regulators, and folks at Boeing. The system has redundancies in place such that if one thing goes wrong (i.e. two engines instead of one), the plane does not fall out of the air. And I think that is worth noting. Meanwhile, The Nation thinks it is all a matter of luck that planes are not falling out of the sky:
The close calls are a matter partly of luck and partly of airlines trying to be more cautious with flawed planes. This is not a sustainable model for an industry where millions depend on safety every day. Flying under this system is a game of Russian roulette. At some point, luck runs out and the barrel has a bullet in it. When we fly, we’re just whistling past the graveyard.
I don’t agree. With flight tracking software and social media, problems can no longer be kept secret. This is a good thing. Every aircraft manufacturer and airline should be held accountable. And yes, Buttigieg should absolutely focus on accountability.
But I think there is an important place for providing a reassuring message because if you’ve read headlines this week, you might think your next flight is a danger or that flying is more dangerous than driving. Statistically, at least, the answer is no to both. Flying is safe. Flying remains safe. We should always take reasonable steps to make it safer, but that does not mean the system is broken.
CONCLUSION
A progressive publication has attacked Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for not doing enough in response to the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 issue. But I think a cautious approach is a wiser alternative to overreaction and assuring Americans that our system of aviation remains remarkably safe is not just a politician’s lie, but the truth…at least when compared to alternative modes of transport.
Ahhh yes, the Nation opining on aviation security. Surely they would have blamed James Burnley for Lockerbie too, right? I fashion myself a progressive, but I don’t have to agree with everyone else that uses that term as well. I have an idea for a better aviation story for them, “10 ways to get a FREE first class upgrade. Hint: DRESS NICE ;)”
LOL
@Jerry … What we need are a lot More Skilled Troubleshooters , and less politician PR cheerleaders . When Howard Hughes as around , first things came first . Happy to see ‘The Nation’ talking Common Sense .
The far left is still just bitter that Pete won in Iowa and derailed the Bernie Sanders campaign. ♂️
Perhaps The Nation author of this article (Jeet Heer) should return to being a a comic critic. Three times he uses the word bedeviled and I lost count on dire. I tend to dismiss such hit job articles like this. I don’t care which side of the fence published them.
All proper investigations take time. Buttigieg is doing his job.
@ Matthew — I’m more worried about the negative impact on UA and AS ability to operate their schedules. If these aircraft remain out of service for a long period of time, it will not be good for consumers in general, as less seats = higher fares. I’m confident that flying is safer than ever following the recent AS incident. It always is immediately following an incident.
Agreed. Time to get those planes back in the air.
So –
1. I don’t his voice or tone soothing (lol). It’s quite irritating actually.
2. But, what is it that the sec of transpo is supposed to do here? Specifically?
3. Nothing for him to do here. Sounds just like another far-left nonsense. It’s an opportunity to shout that there’s “systemic failure / abuse / racism / whatever” etc etc. Ironically, the #1 true “systematic” issue with aviation safety in the US is literally the systems being used (there from the 70’s).
The instant response by Alaska and the FAA to ground and inspect these 737’s was the best course of action. what do you want the sec of Transportation to do? Inspect them himself? I guess the the writer should also be on that inspection team…But od curse!…LMAO!
I think the article may have done a poor job of getting out a needed message: the institutional players are more reactive than they are pro-active, and they tend to be more focused on reacting after something goes wrong and playing a PR game in the aftermath of something going wrong than in getting ahead of possibly increased risk for some kinds of problems.
Are we actually having an increase in the chances of some sorts of problems hitting? Or are problems just more likely to be noticed more than before due to societal changes related to the internet.
Frontline’s ” The troubled history of Boeing’s 737 Max Jet” on PBS is the answer to this post. Is there a legitimate reason to slap label (progressive, liberal, consecutive) on each other when we discuss any topic? Why do you need to assure the public that flying Boeing’s Max plane is safe or attempt to sugar coat Boeing’s history of placing profits above people’s safety? Of course, FAA’s inspection management should be fired for dismissing whistle blower’s complaints. Boeing should be grateful for not doling out tens of millions of dollars to compensate for hundreds of deaths in two crashes. They happened in Indonesia and Ethiopia where human lives are not worth as much as those of western countries. The governments did not have resources and knowledge to go after Boeing for the crashes. To blame the pilots for those crashes is quite repulsive while Boeing took no responsibility and was aware of Max 737 history of troubles. Airlines that bought those Boeing planes had to get huge discounts, knowing the previous crashes and near mishaps.
Inept box-ticking diversity hire blathers, no one cares.