In what looks like the latest example of America's "no consequences" quality control going tragically wrong, a Boeing jet liner has plunged to its fiery death moments after taking off, killing hundreds of passengers. Also killed were several dozen people on the ground. The estimated death toll is circa 290. The jet was a 787-8 Dreamliner sold to Air India back in 2014, with American-made General Electric GEnx-1B engines, rather than British Rolls Royce engines.
As reported by the BBC:
"An Air India passenger plane bound for London's Gatwick airport crashed shortly after taking off in Ahmedabad, western India, on Thursday, killing 241 passengers and crew. It later emerged that only one passenger, a British man, had survived. Among those on board were Indian, British, Portuguese and Canadian nationals. More than 200 bodies were recovered from the scene, but it is unclear how many are from those on board the plane, and how many are casualties from the ground."
As is well known, Boeing has had multiple safety issues over the last few years.
In 2018 a Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed into the sea off the coast of Java, Indonesia, with 189 fatalities; in 2019 another Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed in Ethiopia with 157 fatalities; in 2021 a Boeing 737-500 crashed off Indonesia (again), killing all 62 on board; in 2024 a Boeing 737-800 crashed in Muan, South Korea, killing 179 of the 181 on board.
In 2018 a Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed into the sea off the coast of Java, Indonesia, with 189 fatalities; in 2019 another Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed in Ethiopia with 157 fatalities; in 2021 a Boeing 737-500 crashed off Indonesia (again), killing all 62 on board; in 2024 a Boeing 737-800 crashed in Muan, South Korea, killing 179 of the 181 on board.
This last crash prompted South Korea to order safety inspections of all Boeing 737-800s in the country. A bit late!
Then in January 2024 an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 had a door plug blowout, which miraculously did not cause fatalities but led to the temporary grounding of 171 MAX 9 aircraft for inspections.
There have been numerous other "incidents" showing a pattern of serious flaws and a culture of "almost criminal" negligence -- almost because Boeing's business model clearly seems to be to cut corners on their crappy aircraft and then to buy off any heat when this policy inevitably results in a horrific air crash.
This was highlighted just a week ago when a lawyer for some of the families of the 2018 crash told the BBC that a deal between the aviation giant and the US Justice Department (DOJ) is "morally repugnant":
Yeh, half of the money paid out was immediately ploughed back into Boeing, LOL.
Essentially this is a cheaper option than building safe and reliable aircraft because the public are morons and have an inability to remember important stuff like being burned alive in a cheaply-made metal tube while Boeing's directors grant themselves massive bonuses.
Boeing is the "President Trump of the aviation world" -- in the sense that it can do any dumbass, stupid, immoral shit it wants and avoid the real consequences by just "pardoning itself."
Hopefully airliners will start to vote with their feet and purchase elsewhere, even if America's senile President continues to threaten their countries with sanctions for not buying American crap.
The precise reason for the crash has yet to be determined. No doubt there will be attempts to blame it on a passing seagull or freak weather conditions caused by someone cooking a curry at the wrong moment.
There have been numerous other "incidents" showing a pattern of serious flaws and a culture of "almost criminal" negligence -- almost because Boeing's business model clearly seems to be to cut corners on their crappy aircraft and then to buy off any heat when this policy inevitably results in a horrific air crash.
This was highlighted just a week ago when a lawyer for some of the families of the 2018 crash told the BBC that a deal between the aviation giant and the US Justice Department (DOJ) is "morally repugnant":
"The firm said it agreed to pay $1.1bn (£811.5m) to avoid prosecution over two crashes that killed 346 people, in a filing on Wednesday, external.
Sanjiv Singh, counsel for family members of some of the victims of a 2018 crash in Indonesia, says the deal allows the firm to 'sidestep true criminal accountability'...
The deal includes the company paying $444.5m to families of crash victims. It will also put $455m towards improving its compliance, safety and quality programmes.
Under the deal, Boeing also agreed to pay a criminal penalty of $487.2m, although half of that was already paid in 2021."
Yeh, half of the money paid out was immediately ploughed back into Boeing, LOL.
Essentially this is a cheaper option than building safe and reliable aircraft because the public are morons and have an inability to remember important stuff like being burned alive in a cheaply-made metal tube while Boeing's directors grant themselves massive bonuses.
Boeing is the "President Trump of the aviation world" -- in the sense that it can do any dumbass, stupid, immoral shit it wants and avoid the real consequences by just "pardoning itself."
Hopefully airliners will start to vote with their feet and purchase elsewhere, even if America's senile President continues to threaten their countries with sanctions for not buying American crap.
The precise reason for the crash has yet to be determined. No doubt there will be attempts to blame it on a passing seagull or freak weather conditions caused by someone cooking a curry at the wrong moment.
787s flew more than a decade without any crashes until now, yet you claim it is poorly engineered and cheaply built. No suggestion that perhaps Indian maintence is at fault.
ReplyDeleteBecause it's not just happening in India but all over the world, including the US. Admitting a decline in quality won't bust your chauvinistic bubble, will it?
DeleteThe worsening quality standard that you speak of is largely relegated to the recent variant of 737, while the plane that crashed in India is a 787, which was introduced 2011, when Boeing was presumably still a company that placed engineering first.
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