The sky-high aircraft and aviation thread

Via Mentour Pilot: NTSB: Bolts Securing Alaska 737 MAX-9 Plug WERE Missing

The NTSB has released its preliminary report on Alaska Airlines flight 1282, during which the door plug on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 blew out at 16,000 feet, causing a cabin depressurization and forcing an emergency landing. Initially, it was suspected that the bolts securing the door plug may have been missing from the aircraft, and this is now the NTSB's official finding, pending release of the final report.

It turns out that the airframe in question had undergone rework during manufacturing because of damaged rivets. During that work, the door plug was removed and reinstalled, but there is photographic evidence that the four bolts were not replaced. Further supporting this finding is the patterns, or lack thereof, of damage around the door fittings, indicating that it was able to slide around in the frame prior to its explosive departure.

As has been noted previously, this is not a type of defect that would have been noticeable to the operator of the aircraft outside of heavy maintenance checks, which are not normally performed on such new ones. Pilots had reported intermittent pressurization warnings on previous flights with this aircraft, which were not considered serious enough to take it out of service, but had caused it to be barred from use over water.

The NTSB's final reports in accidents like this often contain maintenance recommendations for airlines as well as recommendations for manufacturers.

The FAA has refused to allow Boeing to accelerate production of the 737 MAX 9 as it had originally planned until it can improve its quality control processes. The company is already years behind its promised schedule for deliveries, causing airlines to scrounge around for enough aircraft to keep up their schedules. Its main competitor, Airbus, is similarly backlogged.

Edited by Fighteer on Feb 7th 2024 at 9:06:06 AM

Press Release: National Museum of the US Air Force was hit by a tornado that struck Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, but damage to museum aircraft was minimal, and main museum hangars are undamaged.

The rather dramatic photos of two aircraft that were damaged while sitting outside the hangar turned out to be of minor concern, as the aircraft were already slated for disposal. I'm guessing they were at the Museum to be a source of parts for aircraft at the museum.

A tire fell off of a United Airlines Boeing 777-200 during takeoff from San Francisco International Airport on Thursday. The tire struck and destroyed a car in a rental parking lot. Fortunately, nobody was injured. The aircraft landed safely at LAX and the passengers were placed on another flight.

Obviously it's too early to declare a cause, and there's no reason to believe it's a safety issue with the aircraft itself, which has been in service for twenty years. Most likely it'll turn out to be a maintenance error. Unfortunately, it'll keep up the pressure on Boeing's reputation.

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 8th 2024 at 11:11:17 AM

F-35A Is Officially Certified For Nuclear Strike

Confirmation that the F-35A is cleared to carry B61-12 nuclear bombs has come — a revelation that will complicate Russia’s defensive planning.

The F-35A has been cleared for the use of the B61-12, a free fall nuclear bomb with a variable yield ranging from sub kiloton range up to 50 Kt yield. The system is now cleared for use in Dutch F-35As after the Dutch received a deterrence mission certification.

Edited by AngelusNox on Mar 10th 2024 at 11:00:06 AM

BBC: Boeing whistleblower John Barnett found dead in US

In a twist that is sure to give conspiracy theorists plenty of food, the quality manager who blew the whistle on Boeing's safety standards has been found dead in his car from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

He had been testifying in a long-running legal action against the company for character assassination after Boeing downplayed the issues that he exposed.

They totally killed him

Epstein’d.

David Kelly'd

Danny Casalaro'd

Four days ago, Russia says military plane crashes with 15 on board and since for some reason the existence of this plane crash is being disputed video and statement by the Russian government. The theory of an engine fire seems pretty plausible, not that it explains why it caught fire and I am pretty sure any aircraft should be able to handle the failure of one engine.

Boeing’s woes continue with another aircraft having something spring a leak or come off outright.

A panel on the outside broke away after leaving San Francisco (why do seemingly all these incidents have this place involved? Is it cursed? Maybe.) and landed in Oregon.

No injuries but definitely not looking good for Boeing both from a legal and reputation standpoint.

United Airlines is one of the biggest operators of the 737 MAX, and San Francisco is a hub for United, so there is a higher probability of a United flight to or from San Francisco having issues.

Two questions worth asking before we blame Boeing is how long it has been since the plane left the plant and what broke. If the plane is brand new or the part that broke off was some section that mechanics wouldn't normally be expected to check, that would be on Boeing. If the plane has been in service for two decades (as some 737-800s like the one we're talking about may have been), and/or if the failed component is something normally serviced as a regular part of aircraft maintenance, the blame might land elsewhere.

Edited by AFP on Mar 16th 2024 at 11:39:03 AM

Reuters: United Airlines shares fall after US FAA increases oversight

United Airlines has come under its own scrutiny by the FAA after a recent series of incidents that may be maintenance-related. These include a missing panel, a runway excursion, and a wheel coming off. While it may seem attractive to scapegoat Boeing at the moment, it's not the only cook in the kitchen.

CNBC: Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun to step down; board chair and commercial airplane head replaced in wake of 737 Max crisis

Three of Boeing's big-wigs are out: CEO Dave Calhoun, Chairman Larry Kellner, and Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal. While it's good to see some accountability at the top, only time will tell if their replacements will continue the shareholder-first mentality that arguably drove Boeing to its current woes. As an aside, some of the replies to CNBC's X post of the article continue a theme I've seen a lot online: blaming the company's issues on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). This strikes me as an absurd non-sequitur.

Tom, the correlation between DEI and poor quality control exists only in the diseased imaginations of the more frequently unwashed portions of the Internet.

Twenty-six years ago, Boeing adopted a culture of prioritizing profits over engineering. That's the root cause of nearly every single one of its current problems.

I think John Oliver covered that with the Boeing and Mc Donnell Douglas merger resulted in the Mc Donnell Douglas corner cutting philosophy winning out on the corp merger.

The argument that DEI directly leads to a labor pool flooded with underqualified applicants relies pretty much entirely on pretty blatant racism and sexism. It also ignores the very long history of white men doing spectacularly stupid shit throughout most of the history of aviation on a level that should be considered white male erasure.

The beauty of right wing arguments is that you don't have to actually prove that this is true, you can just insinuate it over and over again, about all and any women, people of color or openly LGBT perspon who is hired for any job ever.

Besides, the fuck ups on Boeing are tied to their corner cutting measures, this is hardly something that the workers and technicians are responsible for, it is a higher up decision.

Like Hydra in the MCU, the Mc Donnell Douglas culture grew as a beautiful parasite inside Boeing.

Explains so much about Boeings failing really.

I honestly like to compare it to the Warner Bros./Discovery merger. In both cases, the company that was technically the "survivor" of the merger (Boeing, Warner Bros.) was taken over by the company they absorbed, and ruined by that company's questionable decisions.

What we're seeing with Warner Bros. under David Zaslav, with movies being cancelled without warning and shows being pulled from HBO Max, is pretty much exactly the same as what's been going on with Boeing after the McDonnell Douglas merger.

Edited by Booplesnoot on Mar 31st 2024 at 11:20:16 AM