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United finds loose bolts on plug doors during 737 Max 9 inspections

theaircurrent.com

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Re: United finds loose bolts on plug doors during 737 Max 9 inspections

#51

Post by _ea1k »

spike021 wrote: post #38
tuckerpo wrote: post #10

It seems there's a sense of malaise falling over everything and everyone in the USA. People at large simply cannot be bothered to care about anything, including torque specs for freakin' AIRLINERS

I know of a pretty famous car tuner in the US (I won't get too specific for various reasons) and despite most people in my community going to him for service over the years, multiple people have come out and proved he rarely if ever torques anything to spec. For the longest time he even allowed customers to watch in the shop space as he worked on their cars and he'd hand-torque many things that the car manual was ver…

I've noticed the same with electrical work. How many use torque screwdrivers, even when dealing with high load appliances (eg, a 50 amp EVSE)?

Re: United finds loose bolts on plug doors during 737 Max 9 inspections

#52

Post by bilbo0s »

neverartful wrote: post #26
t0mas88 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately consumers don't have much choice, the airline can change which type operates a flight at any time. However longer term if Boeing's reputation keeps getting worse that can motivate buying decisions by the airlines. That change will be a very slow one, because fleet changes cost a lot of money in training crews, changing maintenance etc. For example KLM is changing their short-haul fleet from the 737 NG t…

True, but some airlines probably don't have any in their fleet. If worried consumers find out they could opt to not fly on those airlines.

Most airlines do have MAXs. Delta does not. However, they have ordered some MAXs. So they will have MAXs in the future. That will take quite some time however.

So if it's really that big of an issue for a person, then just fly Delta for the time being.

Re: United finds loose bolts on plug doors during 737 Max 9 inspections

#53

Post by Sparkyte »

tuckerpo wrote: post #10

It seems there's a sense of malaise falling over everything and everyone in the USA. People at large simply cannot be bothered to care about anything, including torque specs for freakin' AIRLINERS

Culture problem as we hire people of a generation who were not educated or engrained with responsibility they avoid doing the right thing and this happens.

Re: United finds loose bolts on plug doors during 737 Max 9 inspections

#54

Post by GenerWork »

spike021 wrote: post #38
tuckerpo wrote: post #10

It seems there's a sense of malaise falling over everything and everyone in the USA. People at large simply cannot be bothered to care about anything, including torque specs for freakin' AIRLINERS

I know of a pretty famous car tuner in the US (I won't get too specific for various reasons) and despite most people in my community going to him for service over the years, multiple people have come out and proved he rarely if ever torques anything to spec. For the longest time he even allowed customers to watch in the shop space as he worked on their cars and he'd hand-torque many things that the car manual was ver…

Sounds like Hennessey.

Re: United finds loose bolts on plug doors during 737 Max 9 inspections

#55

Post by vidanay »

gostsamo wrote: post #47
hmottestad wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe when airlines start advertising that they don’t use the new 737s. The more likely scenario is that the Chinese or Europeans will ground the new 737s until some very expensive fix is put into place and not accept any workarounds. That would probably make a difference. FYI: https://qz.com/1569865/china-grounds-737-max-8-after-ethiopi...

There are mutual recognition agreements between the regulators and if the europeans try something like that, the americans can create counter measures to even the field in a mutually undesired spiral. At this moment, the biggest enemy of Boeing is Boeing itself.

We don't care if people die, just so long as your enforcement is not any more rigorous than ours!

Re: United finds loose bolts on plug doors during 737 Max 9 inspections

#57

Post by fidotron »

spike021 wrote: post #38
tuckerpo wrote: post #10

It seems there's a sense of malaise falling over everything and everyone in the USA. People at large simply cannot be bothered to care about anything, including torque specs for freakin' AIRLINERS

I know of a pretty famous car tuner in the US (I won't get too specific for various reasons) and despite most people in my community going to him for service over the years, multiple people have come out and proved he rarely if ever torques anything to spec. For the longest time he even allowed customers to watch in the shop space as he worked on their cars and he'd hand-torque many things that the car manual was ver…

It is even worse than that: those that don’t care will make life intolerable for those that do until they give up trying to help and go away.

You would definitely hope aerospace assembly would be immune to this widespread phenomenon though.

Re: United finds loose bolts on plug doors during 737 Max 9 inspections

#58

Post by queuebert »

I've seen on Toyotas and also at Universal Studios bolts on rides are marked with paint presumably to indicate that the nut hasn't backed out.

Are airliners marked in this way? Is checking the bolts simply a visual inspection, or do the inspectors need to get out a torque wrench?

Re: United finds loose bolts on plug doors during 737 Max 9 inspections

#59

Post by makestuff »

intunderflow wrote: post #6

At what point do consumers en-masse refuse to fly on these aircraft, if ever? When there's a few more fatal crashes?

I doubt ever, consumers have been proven to select the cheapest airline ticket. The average once-a-year flier likely has no idea what aircraft they are even flying on.

Re: United finds loose bolts on plug doors during 737 Max 9 inspections

#60

Post by j-bos »

baq wrote: post #21
napoleoncomplex wrote: post #7

On at least 5 airplanes? Of one airline? Are loose bolts a minor issue, or is it as insane as it reads?

It's a cliche thing to say, but if it was a known issue and management papered over it - as the alternative is incompetent engineering instead of just cost-center-managed engineering - someone should go jail?

Did anyone go to jail for the previous Boeing MAX crashes?
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