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Is my plane a 737 MAX?

ismyplanea737max.com

301–310 of 579 posts

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#301
If you are outraged and want to be more than performative about it, check if your electeds are on the Senate Aviation Safety, Operations, and Innovation [1] and/or House Aviation Subcommittees [2]. If not, the broader Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation [3] and/or House Transportation & Infrastructure Committees [4].

Call their office (D.C., preferably) or submit a comment noting the issue and your concerns about it. Be dispassoinate. Unless you really know what the fuck you're talking about, avoid suggesting solutions. (You want to avoid the crackpot bin.)

This is a really good week to do this, because budget negotiations are being finalised in both houses.

[1] https://www.commerce.senate.gov/commerce-subcommittees

[2] https://transportation.house.gov/subcommittees/subcommittee/...

[3] https://www.commerce.senate.gov/members

[4] https://transportation.house.gov/about/membership.htm

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the evidence for weakening FAA regulation? EDIT: I'm getting downvoted, but I really am curious. It's extremely uncommon for government bureaucracy to roll back regulations, and as far as I can tell from some Googling, the FAA has not done so. So what regulations are being weakened?

Cozy relationships between the FAA and manufacturers, executive orders requiring them to 'collaborate' with manufacturers, evidence suggesting retaliation against whistleblowers, etc. there were significant investigations after the the MCAS tragedy. And they lost a lot of credibility as leaders in regulation when they waited to ground the max after the crashes while others took the lead. Edit: Replying to the edit -…

Ah, so regulatory capture? I can see that.

It also seems like the ATC system is stretched thin, as well as the airlines themselves in terms of pilots. Though I may be biased since I'm much more aware of ATC problems given the various YouTube channels I watch covering aviation.

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#303

A lot of people don't realize that the fuselage of this plane isn't even made by Boeing, it's made by Spirit AeroSystems which also makes components for Airbus. We don't really know who to blame here until the investigation concludes.

> the fuselage of this plane isn't even made by Boeing, it's made by Spirit AeroSystems which also makes components for Airbus.

Why would a company with the resources of Boeing choose to contract out such an important part of their planes, rather than vertically integrate that?

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would certainly not buy a car from a company that's clearly disregarded safety so badly, and would prefer avoiding being in one for any other reason (friends/rideshare/whatever). That's a lot of cars. The standard in the auto industry is to design specifically for regulatory tests, and/or popular industry tests, in a specific region. All major automakers sell cars that intentionally lack safety features in region…

Which seems totally irrelevant given that we're talking specifically about Boeing failing to meet US regulations (and a bunch of international ones as well). Selling a car without an airbag in a country that's decided you don't need airbags is the choice of the country. If you wanted this to be similar it'd be selling a car in a country that wants you to have airbags, but yours don't work. Which would be a company I'…

You specifically mentioned automakers disregarding safety, which was why I entertained the topic.

We don't know why these doors are falling off yet. Any accusation that it was due to a disregard for safety isn't supported by any facts, yet. It is conjecture.

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand all of that. My point is that people avoiding all 737 MAX variants over an issue specifically on plug doors that are no longer in the air, that we don't even know why they failed, are illogically filtering their flight options.

> over an issue specifically on plug doors that are no longer in the air ... on the same type of plane that had the controls wrong enough to cause two crashes? People can see a pattern there...

Oh yes but that's a different type of MAX though ! No, not the one with the engine nacelle falling potential issue that we don't have a fix but want the FAA to ignore, the other one !

Out of the 3 current MAX types, one killed people two times and the other two have unresolved issues (one that make it fail FAA certification, and the other that make it lose parts of fuselage in flight ...). And then Boeing ask for fast track certification on the 4th type, because they've been doing such a great job so far.

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#306

This doesn't seem correct. I checked a few flights I have coming up and it identified a United flight as not being a MAX, when United itself tells me it is. And it identifies a Southwest flight as being a MAX when it isn't.

Yeah, the data source is imperfect. The flight information pulls the "nearest" (live, scheduled or landed) flight that matches that flight number, to give you a sense of the aircraft on that route.

Imperfect data?!?!! Well, someone isn't getting a coffee!

(just kidding. This is a cool project. Good job)

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#307
Hyper-rational man who read Freakonomics and LessWrong.com, 45, dies in plane crash.

The man, only identified by his initials F.A., a regular user of the website Hacker News, was the single passenger on a flight on the infamous Boeing 737 Max airplane.

As the plane rapidly lost altitude, he lectured the panicking crew on the safety statistics of the airline industry and how flying is technically safer than driving a car.

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But, we're seeing fatal issues with one specific company over and over again. Knowing that there is some systemic failure within Boeing must change your priors, no? What's wrong with pointing that out and being concerned?

I have concerns, but not enough not to fly. Everything I do in life is a calculated risk. If you told me my toaster was 3 times as likely to kill me today I would still probably toast my bread knowing that the base rate was already pretty low. If anything, knowing that all of the headline grabbing incidents has been confined to one product line at one company, and watching the amount of scrutiny they are receiving fo…

[dead]

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#309

Aviation is safe. An issue happened and appropriate steps have immediately happened and in the end an already incredibly safe industry will be even safer. If a car has an issue we don't blink and we loose nearly 40k people a year in the US alone, but a plane has an issue and we panic. Yes, panic. This is not rational or helpful and is a huge reason why aviation is so antiquated. You want flying cars? Stop panicking a…

Strong agree with this, although worth noting that a crude back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the 737 Max has a rate of fatal accidents per mile that is only safer than driving a car by a factor of ~10. (See below.) Since cars are one of the most dangerous forms of transportation, it's certainly not crazy that people would want to avoid an airplane model that's only 10x safer than a car. Bicycles are only…

Do these calculations assume all miles flown by ANY max variant are the same?

Re: Is my plane a 737 MAX?

#310
post #239
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But at that point it's too late. I doubt people are that afraid of 737 Max that they'll cancel a flight (and forfeit their ticket) over it. Luckily the airlines I travel with only use Airbus, but if they were using 737 Max, I'd definitely book tickets that I can change at the last minute, and refuse to board if it turns out to be a 737 Max. Yes, that's probably illogical. And probably much of life is illogical. But…

It may be illogical from a strictly individual point of view. But from a broader societal view we'd all be better off if we did it and it is pro-social and pro-civic to be willing to sacrifice a little of your personal convenience to make a point like this. Nothing but nothing will get Boeing's attention like what is essentially an end-customer strike. In general quite a lot of the chains wrapped around us that drive…

Boeing stock is down substantially. That will get their attention.
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