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

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

#191

Post by 88913527 »

Scoundreller wrote: post #34
Syonyk wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's as insane as it reads. It means people were careless and sloppy during assembly. Think of it like seeing "one cockroach in your kitchen." It's not one cockroach. You just haven't opened up the rest of the walls.

Or it means the torque specs were a little too low, or too high and stripped, or the bolt threading was defective/spec’d wrong. Or bad metallurgy. Or the spec didn’t specify which order to tighten the bolts, so which direction you go causes different outcomes. Lots of stuff is assembled consistently and carefully “wrong”, but as specified.

Some part of the process -- anywhere from specs to assembly-- had some cost cutting that led to the outcome. The root cause of this problem is something financially motivated.

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

#192

Post by Max-q »

fulladder wrote: post #165
CaptainMarvel wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean that the train is _as cheap_ as taking a plane? In my experience, in the UK, taking a train is more expensive than taking a flight (or driving, for that matter).

Why do people pay more for slower transportation?

Train travel tend to be much more comfortable than bus, car or plane. Especially if the plane takes as long time due to airports being located outside the city, security hazel, lots of stress at the airport and so on.

The train cost more, but you enter the train in the city centre, sit down and relax, go to the restaurant car and eat a nice dinner, relax som more and you arrive in the destination city.

This works better in continental Europe, where you have shorter distances and high speed trains between the capitols, often making the train faster from city centre to city centre than air travel. Traveling from Chicago to SF by train is pleasant, but take a couple days, not a couple of hours.

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

#193

Post by wnevets »

but shareholders got rich and that's really what is important.

> Boeing Co. (BA.N) directors authorized a record US$20 billion share buyback program and boosted the company’s dividend 20 per cent -- a sign the planemaker doesn’t intend to stop showering cash on investors any time soon.[1]

[1] https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/boeing-sets-new-20-billion-buyba...

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

#195

Post by hef19898 »

SoftTalker wrote: post #156
barryrandall wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It calls into question Boeing's entire portfolio because it's all a product of the same management culture.

It's a door design that dates back to the 707.

If this turns out to be the assembly issue it seems to be, it hints at a deeper, potentially cultural, issue at Boeing. One that could affect all their planes, because why would only be the B737 MAX FAL be sloppy?

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

#196

Post by intrasight »

pluc wrote: post #119
blindriver wrote: post #101

Doesn’t this call into question the manufacturing of ALL 737 MAX’s including the 7 and 8 since they must use the same manufacturing process?

Yeah this isn't a plane issue, it's a guy holding the drill issue as far as I understand it

A guy holding an inspection report issue

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

#198

Post by 0xffff2 »

datadrivenangel wrote: post #139
leetrout wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Random aside: I looked up an Acela ticket this morning. $1000 for a first class ticket from DC to BOS. 6.5 hours. Same flight first class with Delta this week is $850. Also 6 hours with layover. Blows my mind first class rail travel is as much as first class air travel.

DC to BOS should be a 90 minute flight...?

Presumably the "with layover" is something crazy like a Delta flight that goes via Atlanta. You can get some pretty crazy routing sometimes if you pick the wrong combination of airports and carrier. United has a non-stop with weekday first class tickets for ~$500, so I think the point stands.

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

#199

Post by dustedcodes »

RomanPushkin wrote: post #194
dustedcodes wrote: post #184

[flagged]

Yes, it's within the same family, Boeing MAX.

I will never step foot on a Boeing 737 Max. It seems this plane designed to find new ways to kill you and I'm not having that.

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

#200

Post by jerlam »

infotainment wrote: post #169
outside1234 wrote: post #153

Such a crappy aircraft - can we just get rid of these already?

Agreed — while we’re at it, let’s break Boeing up into multiple firms. It has been “too big to fail” for too long.

Not sure that would help - the Boeing subcontractor that likely played a role in the defective parts, Spirit Aero, was previously part of Boeing and spun off in 2005.
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