Ex-Boeing Manager Says He 'Would Absolutely Not Fly a Max Airplane' After Working in Factory
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
Two former Boeing employees sounded the alarm about the controversial company’s 737 Max, which returned to service following a three-week grounding.
Both men said they would never board one of the aircraft, which were involved in crashes internationally in 2018 and 2019 that left hundreds of people dead.
The Max came under scrutiny again on Jan. 5, when an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max lost its door mid-flight.
The entire fleet — 171 planes — was grounded while the Federal Aviation Administration reviewed them.
By Jan. 27, the planes took to the skies again when they were deemed safe and airworthy.
But two former employees who said they had seen the way the planes were constructed told The Los Angeles Times in an interview published Jan. 30 that they would avoid boarding one.
Former Boeing senior manager Ed Pierson was blunt in his assessment of the controversial model.
“I would absolutely not fly a Max airplane,” he told the Times.
“I’ve worked in the factory where they were built, and I saw the pressure employees were under to rush the planes out the door,” Pierson said. “I tried to get them to shut down before the first crash.”
The former company executive went on to say that the Max’s return to the skies is “another example of poor decision making, and it risks the public safety.”
Meanwhile, former Boeing and FAA engineer Joe Jacobsen echoed a similar warning about the safety of the airplanes.
“I would tell my family to avoid the Max. I would tell everyone, really,” Jacobsen told the Times.
Boeing declined to respond to comments by its former employees, instead insisting the planes are safe even after the Jan. 5 incident and others.
On the company website, Boeing said the Max has been cleared to fly not only by the FAA, but also by regulatory agencies in dozens of countries across six continents.
“Engineers, scientists, researchers, mechanics, pilots and line pilots engaged in a thorough process that involved hundreds of thousands of hours and more than a thousand test and check flights,” the company said about Max’s return to the skies.
While the Alaska Air near-disaster has been blamed on a maintenance oversight and not on the soundness of the planes themselves, two 737 Max aircraft were involved in crashes that killed a total of 346 people in 2018 and 2019.
A 737 Max 8 owned by Lion Air in Indonesia crashed into the ocean on Oct. 29, 2018, shortly after it departed from Jakarta.
All 189 people aboard were killed, and the crash was partly attributed to a faulty sensor, along with pilot error and maintenance issues, NBC News reported.
Another Max 8 operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed just minutes after takeoff months later on March 10, 2019, after departing from Addis Ababa.
All 157 people aboard were killed.
Similar instrumentation issues were reported with the doomed flight, according to ABC News.
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