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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Friday it will open a three-month review of Boeing’s compliance with safety regulations, continuing the agency’s closer oversight of the company since a panel blew off a Boeing jetliner during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
The FAA said its review will examine key areas of safety processes at Boeing to make sure that they “result in timely, accurate safety-related information for FAA use”.
An FAA spokesperson said the review was not triggered by any particular event or concern but rather is part of the FAA’s oversight of safety culture at the huge aircraft maker.
Boeing did not comment immediately on the new review.
The FAA administrator, Mike Whitaker, has ordered special audits of Boeing and other steps to examine the safety culture at the company since a panel called a door plug blew off a 737 Max during the Alaska Airlines flight.
However, the inspector general of the transportation department, the FAA’s parent agency, said last week that weaknesses in FAA oversight are limiting its ability to find and fix problems at Boeing.
The auditor said the FAA has failed to ensure that Boeing and its suppliers make parts that meet engineering and design requirements and to investigate claims that Boeing puts improper pressure on employees who are authorized to conduct safety inspections. The FAA has closed only 14 of 34 reports of undue pressure, with the others remaining open for more than a year on average, according to the report.
Last month, the National Transportation Safety Board issued an “urgent” recommendation to the FAA about a problem that surfaced in February with rudders that pilots use to steer certain Boeing 737s after landing. Two weeks later, the FAA later issued a safety alert to airlines about the matter.
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I happened to watch the NASA press conference late last evening. Five reps from across the spectrum, including Launch Alliance and Boeing. That relief valve you mention was detected “buzzing” (apparently by other sensors). A buzzing sound indicates a “flutter” condition. Going further - the flutter could cause premature wear on the valve so that it might not operate throughout the flight. Doing a valve reset or test would have required some type of “fuel transfer”. Perfectly acceptable on non-crewed missions. But LA rules are stricter when humans are aboard. There was a mild “dig” at SpaceX from the Launch Alliance engineer. He noted that “others” continue fueling their rockets with people aboard, but their own rules don’t allow this, as it is seen as too dangerous.
Geez. This really is ”rocket science”. Difficult to imagine the complexity of these things.
Reminds me of Apollo I, but after that horrible fire, NASA stopped using a pure oxygen atmosphere in their space vehicles. I don't suppose the scrubbed current mission was using pure oxygen, either.....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1
Following are edited excerpts from a current report in The Washington Post.
Time to pay them back!
Nurse's Union here is striking again, for a single day. Admin. says anyone who doesn't show up for work will be locked out. They simply refuse to hire enough people to do the work--- though the offered pay increase is legitimately large. The Union is asking for binding arbitration.
Yes, this is tangential, sorry. But it's all about the same sort of situation:
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2024/09/13/strike-set-after-negotiations-between-nurses-kapiolani-medical-center-end-without-deal/
Companies with heavy blue collar workers see the disproportionate comp difference between the workers and the management. The discrepancy in Europe is not as severe and it is not as severe in the US Tech industry (for a different reason). Congress can fix some of these issues by penalizing RSU grants and encouraging stock option grants.
Except for its history in Seattle, I do not see why BA needs to move some of its operations back to Seattle. I think the company should organize itself to operate most efficiently, notwithstanding what unions want. My sense is, in the final deal, workers will get what is most important to them and the company will get what is most important for the company's operations. Hopefully, the union leaders lose out.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/boeing-defense-head-ted-colbert-205610533.html
"And one particular set of nonunion employees were surprised to learn they will be among those subject to the rolling furloughs. That’s those in Boeing’s Chief Aerospace Safety Office — responsible for the company’s implementation of Congressional legislation that raised safety standards and setting up a new companywide safety management system."
"As Boeing makes these moves to conserve cash, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers insisted Thursday 'this strike is going to last as long as it has to.'"
Boeing Furloughs
https://thehill.com/homenews/4921992-faa-warning-boeing-737-rudder-system-may-jam/
"...a sealed bearing was incorrectly assembled during production, leaving the one side more susceptible to moisture which can freeze and limit rudder system movement...The news comes just four days after lawmakers urged the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate Boeing executives for putting profit over safety. The company has been under intense scrutiny over the last year following an incident in January when a door panel flew off mid-flight during an Alaska Airlines trip."
Collins Aerospace is an American technology company that is one of the world's largest suppliers of aerospace and defense products, and is not owned or controlled by Boeing.
”On Tuesday, S&P Global Ratings said it’s considering downgrading the planemaker to junk as strikes at its manufacturing sites persist, hurting production. Last month, Moody’s Ratings said it’s considering a similar move.”
Considered adding this to a couple of other running threads dealing with fixed income / bond investing. The ramifications of the Boeing story are very far reaching.
New CEO has to start with cleaning house!
In this instance I believe that the defect was a bearing with an improper internal seal from Collins, a usually reliable supplier, and which was not observable by Boeing employees as they assembled the rudder components.
It's my understanding that over a fairly long period of time the improper internal bearing seal allowed moisture to accumulate inside the bearing, which under certain environmental conditions could then freeze, making the rudder controls very difficult or impossible to actuate.
The USA used to be the untouchable Gold Standard.
The FAA has been under significant regulatory capture for many years, much to the continuing irritation of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), who are the U.S. primary investigators of aircraft accidents. Over the years there have been quite a number of situations where the NTSB has issued recommendations after an investigation, only to have those recommendations watered down or even ignored by the FAA.
It has not been uncommon for the FAA to issue regulatory safety measures only after being forced to by critical publicity after repeated problems of a particular type, and well after prior NTSB recommendations on the problem.
Have you ever seen the size of the FAA building in D.C.? It's hard to understand what all those people are doing if they "don't have enough resources".
Six years after those crashes, I do not see any real progress. Break it up. It has a rotten culture and it needs to start as a different company.
Disclosure: I own BA.
BTW, RTX had some product problems in the past 12 months and it fixed the issues enough that its stock recovered very well. If a company has a good culture, it can recover well from mistakes.
I agree with Old Joe about ascribing the issue to the supplier and not to BA in that one instance. Thanks to him for the detailed and objective reporting.
"Truth", as @Crash would say.
https://cdn.britannica.com/38/5038-050-F7CFE2C9/Elevation-Africa.jpg
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nyc-bound-boeing-767-makes-224137827.html
"Boeing, Union Reach Tentative Deal to End Strike. Wages Would Jump 35%."
https://www.barrons.com/articles/boeing-union-tentative-deal-strike-b8023738?mod=Searchresults
Boeing is having such design and manufacturing problems that simply building a plane that can be counted on to fly right might constitute a significant increase in productivity.
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeing-delays-suppliers-737-max-output-goal-by-6-months-sources-say-2024-09-09/
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/184-passengers-and-crew-evacuated-as-ryanair-boeing-plane-catches-fire-on-runway-in-italy/1705397
I just need the execs to get back to fixing the culture.
Side bar, There is a possibility, it is going to be M Bowman and not Powell’s world. In any case, Powell term ends in a year or so.