Trusted brand? No longer
About a month ago, I wrote a column about Boeing that generated a lot of positive feedback from readers. Since then, the situation with Boeing has continued to worsen.
In the column linked above I mentioned that a Boeing whistleblower took his own life. Did he commit suicide or was it made to look like it was? In spite of the shadow over this “suicide” , last week another whistleblower came forward to say that the much-touted Dreamliner 787 might have problems. This engineer has said that the fuselage of the Dreamliner was assembled poorly. This whistleblower is scheduled to appear before a Senate committee on April 17.
I think that what will come out is that Boeing prioritized production speed over safety. More production, more planes sold, so the pace to deliver took priority over safety. The framing will be that Boeing put profits above safety. This means that Boeing put profits before humanity.
Boeing's recent safety failings include:
-Two major deadly crashes with the 737 MAX in 2018 and 2019 left 346 people dead. This resulted in a total of close to 400 aircraft being grounded. The Congress concluded its investigation by stating that Boeing had dismissed employee concerns about the software that caused both accidents.
-In 2021 Boeing agreed to pay over $2.5 billion dollars as they had been charged with fraud. This broke down into some $244 million for a criminal penalty, $1.77 billion for damages to airline customers and half a billion to a crash-victim beneficiaries fund from Wikipedia
-The Boeing 777X, Boeings largest capacity twin jet had its maiden flight in 2020 but experienced problems. This delayed delivery of this model aircraft to 2024. Further technical problems were discovered in 2022, delaying the sale of the aircraft until 2025, or six years after it’s planned release date
-Then, of course, was the Alaska Airlines flight in January 2024, when a door plug blew out of a 737 MAX at 16,000 feet. We all saw that and immediately gave thanks that we were not on that fight.
Here, we have a company that denies compromising quality, yet it is clear that they have a quality .problem. They deny the findings of their own employees and engineers that safety is being compromised. Why?
When a computer printer manufacturer has “safety issues” the consequences are minimal. When an airplane manufacturer has “safety issues” hundreds of people die. As I said in the prior linked column above, Boeing planes are like Nader’s analysis of American cars, “Unsafe at Any SpeedIt makes”
Now we have a congressional hearing with the latest whistleblower, who has worked on both the Dreamliner 787 and the aforementioned 777X. These are the jumbo aircraft with hundreds of passengers, so crashes might mean the death of hundreds of people, per crash
All the while Boeing seems to not listen to its own engineers. It publicly denies problems and then has them. The only possible reason for this is the prioritizing of speed of production for profit.
Last month both the CEO, Dave Calhoun and board chair Larry Kellner announced they will step down from their roles. Calhoun was paid $33 million for 2023. Again, corporate America values its’ CEO more than they do the safety of the people. I wonder how the relatives of the hundreds of people that have died in Boeing planes feel about that level of compensation.
I am sure this has the effect on you that it does on me: I will try not to fly Boeing planes if possible, though that will be hard to do. A very good friend of mine has spent the last few years booking all his travel on airlines that will fly him on non-Boeing manufactured aircraft. Makes really good sense in light of what we now know about the company.
I have written several columns here and in my book published in 2020 that one of the four things that would begin in the 2020s is the reinvention of capitalism. Capitalism was “invented” in the 18th century and it needs reinvention to align with the realities of the 21st century. All over the world today we see massive wealth inequality and a growing anger about it. Corporations are created to make profits and, in this century, to line the pockets of the CEO and the shareholders. They are not aligned with humanity as much as they are with profits. More on that in future columns.
Humanity has entered the global stage of human evolution. Eight billion people are alive today four times more than 100 years ago, when Boeing was incorporated. This means that we will need to move from a profits-first corporate orientation to a people-first one. Given the climate crisis, the trust crisis with government and corporations, it is time to completely reorient society from #money first to #humanity first. Placing humans above profit. I know this can sound idealistic, but if a company like Boeing had been operating with a #humanityfirst mindset rather than a #moneyfirst mindset, a few hundred people might be alive today who died due to flaws in Boeing aircraft.
Thanks Henry. Time for Capitalism to be reinvented for the 21st century
Another Excellent Article and Observation David. I Always Appreciate Your Perspective On So Many National and International Events....