An Al Jazeera English People & Power investigation from 2010 into safety problems with the Boeing 737NG, featuring whistleblowers on cracking parts, hand-made structural components and an alleged cover-up.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN resurfaces it during Boeing safety stories as early, firsthand evidence that production and management problems long predate the 737 Max.
“Here are gruesome, firsthand details about production and management problems with the 737NG in a documentary from Al Jazeera.”HN comment, 2021
“Here are gruesome, firsthand details about production and management problems with the 737NG in a documentary from Al Jazeera.”
Firsthand details on 737NG production and management problems and a government cover-up.
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Here are gruesome, firsthand details about production and management problems with the 737NG in a documentary from Al Jazeera. this video The following summary is my own: The whole story is shown in the first seconds: three aircraft encountering more force than a usual landing (such as a runway overrun). All three fuselages breaking into three parts in exactly the same two places! All three aircraft exactly eight years old. Aluminum members called chords run the length of the fuselage and around the circumference to make up the fuselage structure. The chords are joined to each other and to reinforcing surrounds for large openings like doors. Poorly fitting chords and bear plates around openings were redrilled when mounting holes were misplaced, reshaped and pounded with hammers in order to mate them. This weakened of the structure to below design margins. In addition excessive metal fatigue due to hand processing led to accelerated corrosion, likely causing structural failure in three eight-year-old NG aircraft that broke up on landing. The aircraft were engineered to survive an emergency landing intact and were designed for 30-year airframe life. More to the story as the government colluded with Boeing to cover these deficiencies and frustrate the actions (eventually lawsuits) by a team of whistleblowers. Basically, the subcontractor agreed to use computer controlled manufacturing processes, then did 90% of the work by hand. The resulting substandard parts were beaten into shap
RecommendsreimertzJul 2019
“Here is the video documentary by Al Jazeera for said scandal”
Al Jazeera documentary on faulty parts and cover-up on the 737NG.
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Here is the video documentary by Al Jazeera for said scandal: this video I just watched it. This is bad. Boeing, with the help of the American government, is covering up serious issues with how the 737NG is being built with faulty parts.
RecommendsmynameisnooneJan 2024
“Here's a documentary about it”
Documentary on unaddressed 737 NG critical problems.
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Link? Also, the rot didn't start with the 737 MAX. The 737 NG has critical problems that went unaddressed that has contributed to multiple fatalities and equipment damage. Here's a documentary about it: People & Power - On a wing and a prayer (2010) Al Jazeera this videolink
RecommendsmynameisnooneJan 2024
“Watch this documentary about whistleblower complaints as far back as the 737 NG line”
Whistleblowers describe workers hammering structural parts into place on the 737 NG line.
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You're talking out of your ass. Watch this documentary about whistleblower complaints as far back as the 737 NG line as they observed workers beating structural parts into place with hammers. Clearly, things haven't improved since then. this video
Cites itbwilli123May 2019
“the problems have been there since at least 2005”
Documentary on long-standing Boeing production problems.
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Some Boeing history from 2010. On the Dreamliner. this video Short version: the problems have been there since at least 2005
Cites ithansthehorseSep 2019
“There is a 9 year old documentary on two Boing whistleblowers describing cracking probability on the 737ng.”
Hour-long documentary with two Boeing whistleblowers on 737NG cracking.
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There is a 9 year old documentary on two Boing whistleblowers describing cracking probability on the 737ng. It's an hour long: this video
Cites itanon91831837Sep 2019
Reveals Boeing-Ducommun cover-up of hand-made structural parts on 737NG.
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Unsurprising given the 2010 Al Jazeera revelations of the Boeing-Ducommun conspiracy and cover-up: critical structural elements that were supposed to be CNC machined by Ducommun were crudely made by hand and Boeing managers ordered them installed into 737 NG (-600, -700, -800, -900) anyhow. And then when a blue-ribbon panel of Boeing employees went to find out what happened, their findings were buried and no corrective action was taken. 737 NG's are flying around with substandard critical structural components like spars and the areas around doors, leading to several fuselage breakups on hard landings and runway overruns, which has killed at least several passengers to date. In past similar incidents, aircraft fuselages survived intact. There's a very real possibility that one or more 737 NG's may breakup in heavy turbulence, hard landings and runway overruns at any time, and Boeing knows about it, but has done nothing to remedy it. this video
Cites italexis_frOct 2019
Source on FAA failures and metal frame defects at Boeing.
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Or: Boeing is in a spiral to death, involving bigger-than-themselves trends: - Airbus started later, so they started with newer technology, on top of it the fly-by-wire / all electronics commands. Boeing is weighted by its legacy. Dozens of thousands of pilots have been trained on mechanical systems, it’s hard to migrate them. Airbus benefited from watching Boeing’s experience and starting at the age of electronics. - Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas in the 2000’s which has extremely bad engineering records (Half of episodes of Air Crash Investigation are about the DC-9/DC-10/MD-11, involving FAA leniency on the flying doors, FAA leniency on extending the length without doing the proper engineering, and I don’t know if one sees a ressemblance with current events). So the MD acquisition may have entirely modified Boeing’s middle management approach to « handling FAA ». By negotiating FAA’s leniency, or by having people exchange jobs and offices... - Since the MD purchase 20 years ago, Boeing has chosen to collude with FAA to become the certifier instead of the FAA, in order to win competition against Airbus. Unfortunately it has eroded customer trust when we noticed the FAA isn’t doing its job at all, for example about the metal frames where workers had to drill extra holes next to misplaced ones, or bend the frames, compromising structural integrity entirely [1], the batteries or the MCAS. - Now with 200 aircrafts 737 Max grounded since 6 months, and perhaps in need of being t
Cites itkrnNov 2019
“metallurgical issues in Boeing planes can be as critical as software issues”
Shows metallurgical problems in Boeing planes can be as critical as software.
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> I'm saying this to highlight that what you're pointing out, while not desired, is kinda expected. If it was expected, it wouldn't be newsworthy. And metallurgical issues in Boeing planes can be as critical as software issues: this video
