FWIW, I thought they'd indict the unpaid intern in janitorial department. That's how such things usually go.
Former Boeing 737 Max Chief Technical Pilot Indicted for Fraud
51–60 of 367 posts
Re: Former Boeing 737 Max Chief Technical Pilot Indicted for Fraud
#52Nailed for being the only guy stupid enough to write instant messages bragging about misleading the FAA. As a longtime corporate grunt, I can guess exactly how management leaned on him. He should have left and let the scumbags find another patsy to do their dirty work.
Source?
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/explo...
This source says text messages. Thought I saw instant messages somewhere else.
Re: Former Boeing 737 Max Chief Technical Pilot Indicted for Fraud
#53Boeing were idiots selling this new model into the markets they did right out the gate. It was greed and bit them hard. Poor maintenance. Pilot skills in hand flying and unusual flying and recovery so different (overseas they don't always come through a normal US style GA background). If they would have looked more closely at the US, they would have found that this system was triggered (and resolved) I suspect pretty…
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Re: Former Boeing 737 Max Chief Technical Pilot Indicted for Fraud
#54I knew this whole Boeing disaster was the work a rogue chief technical pilot.
They must be stopped!
Re: Former Boeing 737 Max Chief Technical Pilot Indicted for Fraud
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do not know if these discussions happened in WA, but WA had one party consent audio recording laws instead of all party consent, then executives would be more wary of instructing underlings to do something illegal.
sure but thats like 1 in 1000 but putting stuff in text/IM/email is instantly discovered if anything ever goes to trial and there is electronic discovery
Unless your corporate retention policy is only 6 months. I setup an archive to keep important emails around only to find out our retention policy had been applied to it.
Once an org gets burned by discovery in a lawsuit they go to great lengths to ensure it will never happen again.
Re: Former Boeing 737 Max Chief Technical Pilot Indicted for Fraud
#56Boeing were idiots selling this new model into the markets they did right out the gate. It was greed and bit them hard. Poor maintenance. Pilot skills in hand flying and unusual flying and recovery so different (overseas they don't always come through a normal US style GA background). If they would have looked more closely at the US, they would have found that this system was triggered (and resolved) I suspect pretty…
The flight previous to the LA crash also experienced the MCAS malfunction. You don't hear about that one because the crew used the electric trim switches to return trim to normal, then turned off the stab trim system with the cutoff switches. Then, they continued the flight and landed normally. The next flight on the same airplane is the one that crashed. The crew restored normal trim with the electric trim switches…
The Ethiopian Airlines pilots followed the EAD to the letter.
First, they attempted to adjust trim using electric stabilizer trim, and then upon realizing that the they were experiencing an uncommanded nose down stabilizer trim, they followed the runaway stabilizer procedure - namely, stab trim cutout and trim wheel grasp and hold. Afterwards, they attempted to adjust the stabilizer manually.
There is a note in the EAD that electric stabilizer trim can be used to neutralize the stabilizers before doing a stab trim cutout, but crucially Boeing did not instruct pilots to make sure to neutralize trim first using electric trim before doing the stab trim cutout.
Re: Former Boeing 737 Max Chief Technical Pilot Indicted for Fraud
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
well some C-level staff eventually has to take some responsibility, can't keep passing the buck.
He is c-level. He’s the _Chief_ Technical Pilot.
"Chief Technical Pilot" is not a role listed amongst the dozens of executive council roles and vice president roles at Boeing[1].
What about the following executive roles listed at [1]:
* Chief Aerospace Safety Officer
* Chief Compliance Officer
* Chief Engineer
* Vice President, Total Quality, Boeing Commercial Airplanes
* Vice President and Chief Engineer, Boeing Commercial Airplanes
* Vice President, Manufacturing and Safety
Are there more indictments on the way? It doesn't sound plausible that a "Chief Technical Pilot" at Boeing should be ultimately responsible for signing off engineering designs for MCAS, signing off on the System Safety Analysis for MCAS, signing off on manuals to be provided to pilots that omitted MCAS, signing off on training materials that omitted MCAS, ensuring quality assurance across all of the above, signing off on verification and validation of MCAS, etc. There is a large team of people signing off on these processes and documents. Per [2], "The chief pilot is among the leaders who must concur that an airplane is flightworthy before the company proceeds with a flight."
If I'm wrong and the chief pilot for an aircraft class is indeed ultimately responsible for its design, engineering, testing, training, certification and everything else, why is this situation possible? Is there no independent quality assurance and auditing?
[1] https://www.boeing.com/company/bios/
[2] https://www.boeing.com/commercial/737max/737-max-pilots-role...
Re: Former Boeing 737 Max Chief Technical Pilot Indicted for Fraud
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
sure but thats like 1 in 1000 but putting stuff in text/IM/email is instantly discovered if anything ever goes to trial and there is electronic discovery
Unless your corporate retention policy is only 6 months. I setup an archive to keep important emails around only to find out our retention policy had been applied to it. Once an org gets burned by discovery in a lawsuit they go to great lengths to ensure it will never happen again.
I suspect the regulatory environment in aviation is the strictest any developer faces.
Re: Former Boeing 737 Max Chief Technical Pilot Indicted for Fraud
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
The flight previous to the LA crash also experienced the MCAS malfunction. You don't hear about that one because the crew used the electric trim switches to return trim to normal, then turned off the stab trim system with the cutoff switches. Then, they continued the flight and landed normally. The next flight on the same airplane is the one that crashed. The crew restored normal trim with the electric trim switches…
The Ethiopian Airlines pilots followed the EAD to the letter. First, they attempted to adjust trim using electric stabilizer trim, and then upon realizing that the they were experiencing an uncommanded nose down stabilizer trim, they followed the runaway stabilizer procedure - namely, stab trim cutout and trim wheel grasp and hold. Afterwards, they attempted to adjust the stabilizer manually. There is a note in the E…
> Boeing did not instruct pilots to make sure to neutralize trim first using electric trim before doing the stab trim cutout.
Yes, they did:
"Initially, higher control forces may be needed to overcome any stabilizer nose down trim already applied. Electric stabilizer trim can be used to neutralize control column pitch forces before moving the STAB TRIM CUTOUT switches to CUTOUT. Manual stabilizer trim can be used before and after the STAB TRIM CUTOUT switches are moved to CUTOUT."
https://theaircurrent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/B737-MA...
Note also that the EA pilots had already successfully overridden and restored normal trim twice with the electric trim switches.
(I added the emphasis on "before".)
Re: Former Boeing 737 Max Chief Technical Pilot Indicted for Fraud
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unless your corporate retention policy is only 6 months. I setup an archive to keep important emails around only to find out our retention policy had been applied to it. Once an org gets burned by discovery in a lawsuit they go to great lengths to ensure it will never happen again.
I suspect the regulatory environment in aviation is the strictest any developer faces.
laughes in healthcare