My Letter to Boeing
On January 11, 2024, I decided to write a letter to someone at Boeing. I didn’t really care, and still don’t care if it was read or not. It highlights some things that current management is more than likely unaware of, because large companies like this have a tendency to be unaware of their history and their legacies. None of this has anything to do with shareholder value. Even before concerns over plugs and engine-anti-icing systems in current airplanes, what is stated below is true, if pretty esoteric.
Dear Boeing Team,
I am a member of the flying public who has the privilege of making air travel a mode of transportation 2–3 times a month. Alaska Airlines (and its chosen airline partners) is my chosen partner in travel for both business and leisure, and therefore Boeing is my trusted partner as well. I have flown on the MAX-9 several times in ’22 and half a dozen times in ’23 and in most cases it was a great experience. The plane is quieter than the -NG models they replace and the footrests are a nice touch in First Class.
My last flight was on a MAX-9 (Christmas Day 2023 from ORD to PDX) that had been delivered in November of 2023 and the coffee pot in first class was something the flight attendant had to fight with, and I thought to myself “How does a coffee pot not work right on a brand new airplane?”
It turns out this was a pretty tiny thing in the grand scheme of things.
The MAX is suffering from what the DC-10 suffered from in the early 1970s in reverse. The causes behind the Lion Air and Ethiopian MAX crashes are not the same as Turkish 981 in 1974 which was the result of a second cargo door failure on a DC-10, but the number of deaths are exactly the same: 346. Now we have a near-miss on AS1282, which is analogous to AA96 in 1972 where the cargo door failure on a DC-10 led to a near miss, because the plane was lightly loaded and just controllable enough to land on the ground.
The absorption of McDonnell Douglas in 1996 makes the DC-10 and the absence of a safety culture surrounding the DC-10 part of Boeing’s legacy. There is no avoiding this.
The MAX-9s are being sloppily built because Boeing lacks a safety culture to build safe airplanes. While I would have preferred to see a 787-derived 737 replacement aircraft, I do believe the MAX design is now sound. I truly hope the case is simply that the planes are being sloppily assembled. Any skilled assembly work is an art.
I have chosen to trust Alaska Airlines, therefore, I have chosen to trust you.
Lastly, I work in an industry that does not appreciate American craftsmanship, even though my company builds 80% (and tests 95% before it goes out) of its products in a factory in Oregon. The US does not have a lot of industry left that we can be proud of, but one of the shining stars all throughout the de-industrialization of our country, is that we build the best commercial airplanes in the world. The world needs a healthy Boeing with a healthy safety culture to build the safest-possible airplanes.
