Justice versus Conscience

Former Employee: ‘This is What Went Wrong with the Boeing 737 Max’

“It was a rush job when the Boeing 737 Max was designed,” says someone who was a manager in the Boeing factory. The nose pushed down, making Boeing’s 737 Max planes life-threatening and unreliable. According to him, this is what went wrong at that time.

Ed Pierson was a senior manager in the factory where these planes were built. The Max was first introduced in January 2016, and it was a big event. It was the first new plane from Boeing’s second century. In 2017, the first plane was delivered to customers, and a year and a half later, the first fatal accident of the aircraft occurred. A Lion Air flight from Jakarta crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff. Boeing initially claimed it was a pilot error. A few months later, something similar happened with an Ethiopian Airlines flight. A total of 346 people had already died.

Boeing 737 Max

That couldn’t be a coincidence. It soon became clear that there was something wrong with the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, which caused the nose of the plane to be pulled down slightly. This was apparently a necessary application because this plane has heavier engines that are mounted higher and thus tend to push the nose up. On paper, a good solution, but in practice, the system was based on one sensor, and if it failed, the system could prevent the plane from going up.

The news surrounding the 737 Max accelerated after that second crash, and the planes were grounded. In an interview with Interesting Engineering, Pierson said: “There is a well-documented list of problems. It started with the preliminary design of the plane, all the way through design development, production, and now operation. There have been repeated examples of rushed work and shortcuts, all in an attempt to get the planes out the door as quickly as possible so the company could make money.” Especially because, in the meantime, Airbus and the Neo planes were doing well, so Boeing felt the pressure.

Technical Standards

Pierson: “They mounted the engines and modified the plane a few times. They got through that, even though it took years. If you talk to the people involved in the certification, they will say: ‘Well, it took five years.’ It took more than ten years to design and develop the engine, and it still does not meet technical standards.” In 2021, the planes were finally allowed to be used again.

Another problem Pierson points out is that in the United States, not every airline consistently reports on the performance of the planes. Smaller airlines like Alaska Airlines do, but Southwest Airlines, which has many more Max planes, does not. So there are significant differences in data. At the same time, there is Boeing’s side: it said in January to CNBC that it wants to ensure this never happens again: “We will look everywhere around the MAX, around the Spirit factories, our own factories, our inspection processes, and we will make sure we take steps to ensure it can never, ever happen again.” There have also been some changes with the authorities, namely that they are now monitoring more strictly to detect potential problems more quickly.