Fear of Flying? Are the skies safe?
Door blows out, wheel falls off- Is it all related?
NTSB investigators examine the “plug door” opening after the door blew out during flight on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX. (Credit: NTSB)
Are you wondering whether it’s safe to board a jetliner? That’s understandable. There have been a number of incidents that have garnered headlines and stories, some breathless, about these incidents. There were two elements in many of these stories- something going wrong, and Boeing.
The problem is that there are two very different issues here that are mistakenly being lumped together by several news outlets. The job of journalists is to clarify, not to confuse. Boeing is rightfully under investigation after a door panel, not bolted down in the factory, blew out of a 737 MAX. The FAA Administrator has just told NBC News that his agency found serious concerns about the company’s safety culture. More on manufacturing defects in a moment.
TWO SEPARATE ISSUES
In the past two weeks there have been a series of incidents involving Boeing aircraft. Flames shooting out of an engine, a wheel falling off during takeoff, and an external panel falling off. These are likely all maintenance issues that are the responsibility of the airlines.
A United Airlines Boeing 777 loses a wheel on take off. (Credit: CaliPlanesYouTube)
Blaming Boeing for a wheel falling off a jet that has been in service for year is like blaming Ford for a wheel falling off your car after you went to the neighborhood tire shop. Same with the engine fire. Boeing doesn’t build engines. Airlines buy them from engine makers. By the way it was some plastic bubble wrap that was ingested by the engine that forced that jet to return and land.
Those maintenance and other issues hit United again and again. That is why CEO Scott Kirby sent a note to customers saying his airline is looking at its safety systems, while pointing out the incidents, “are all unrelated.” Kirby’s note rightfully separates maintenance issues from manufacturing defects. The troubles at the airline have also captured the attention of the FAA as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The FAA will review some of United’s processes, manuals and facilities in the coming weeks, Sasha Johnson, United’s vice president of corporate safety, wrote in a memo viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
BOEING SAFETY CULTURE
It’s the defects or manufacturing failures that have the attention of the FAA. The New York Times reports that a six-week FAA investigation found that Boeing failed more than a third of the audits in its 737 factory outside of Seattle. Administrator Michael Whitaker, who has given Boeing 90 days to come up with a plan to fix manufacturing issues, told Lester Holt this week, "The protocols were not what one would expect "if safety is the first priority.”
Whitaker says Boeing’s culture emphasizes production rate more than safety standards. As a reporter who has covered Boeing off and on for four decades, the focus of the company changed about 20 years ago and “rate” became a focus. Rate is the number of aircraft that come off the line in one month. Boeing has a big backlog of orders and has been trying to increase the rate of 737 production after it made it through the two MAX crashes. More on Boeing’s culture in the coming weeks.
We do know the manufacturing issues have the attention of Boeing’s customers. The airlines have asked for a meeting with the Boeing board without the Boeing CEO in attendance.
AVIATION SYSTEM
This is just the latest focus on safety in the skies. A year ago we were talking about close calls on runways with questions about pilots and air traffic controllers. Those incidents were such a concern that the FAA established an independent panel to look at our National Airspace System (NAS) to find weaknesses.
The findings are encouraging. “It's still safe. Air Transportation in the United States is as safe as it's ever been,” says Robert Sumwalt, a member of the panel and the former Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board. “Not that we measure safety by lack of accidents, but the last major commercial airline crash in the United States, you go back to the major airlines, that would be that would be November of 2001,” the former airline pilot told me. There was a regional airline deadly crash in 2009, but it is the last major loss of life the country has seen in commercial aviation.
The panel was blunt. They see problems. The FAA has acted on some recommendations, but others will take time. “A lot of these problems that have been pointed out, there are no easy fixes,” Sumwalt says.
Since the pandemic, there has been a shortage of both pilots and air traffic controllers. Sumwalt, who is now teaching at Embry-Riddle Aerospace University, says, “You're not going to just flip a switch and all of a sudden train 1500 air traffic controllers, so there are things that aren't going to be fixed overnight.”
The pilot shortage can be laid, at least partly, at the feet of the airlines. With air travel nearly shut down in the pandemic, airlines offered pilots buyouts and early retirement to reduce their costs. Building back is taking time and there have been some piloting mistakes. “My premise is that guys, it's time to get back to basics,” says Sumwalt.
So let’s answer some of the questions in the headline. Yes, the skies are safe. Flying is the safest mode of transportation we have. You are more likely to be killed walking across the street than flying. That doesn’t mean it can’t be safer and that was the work of the independent panel. And, I think it’s clear that all these incidents in recent weeks are not related. Social media has led to many more reports of incidents involving aircraft. Just think of how many were not reported before social media. And finally, yes, Boeing has some manufacturing and branding issues that need to be addressed quickly.
See you at the airport.
“ The job of journalists is to clarify, not to confuse.” Never an issue with the author of this piece.