It was fun to take part! Great production.

From "If it's not Boeing I'm not going" to "If it's Boeing I'm not going" we all grew up.

_"When one door closes, another opens."_ ~ Boeing.

There is one interesting quotes "you can teach business to engineer, but can't teach engineering to businessman"

I was a QA Inspector for McDonnell Douglas in St Louis. Then Boeing took over. My QA management was forced out or reassigned to some other job, and I then reported to production management, which created a huge conflict of interest because the floor manager's only interest was to send the product out as quickly as possible, and I wanted it done correctly per blueprint and process specifications and free of defects. Boeing also implemented what they called "OV", or Operator Verification, meaning the technicians would inspect/approve their own work without any input from an Inspector. My Inspector job transitioned into Quality Auditor, whereupon I would audit the processes, but not the product. Whenever I did find something defective, I would write a Nonconformance report, and the floor manager would invariably countermand/delete my report. So I would simply issue another NR right behind the one the floor manager deleted. Eventually I was fired for "insubordination" for simply following the established procedures. I want full back pay back to my May 2012 termination date up to now. Plus I want punitive and compensatory damages.

Putting MBAs in charge of any company where they don't actually understand how the technology works always leads to disaster.

Airbus CEO=Engineer Boeing CEO=Accountant. Fact!

So much better than any other documentary I’ve seen on the subject. My now deceased brother-in-law headed the team at Goodrich that wrote the technical manuals for the Dreamliner. He always said he would never fly a Dreamliner… the potential issues were too numerous and without solutions. He did not do the manuals for the 737 Max, but he’d heard that new software was potentially problematic.

Heart breaking. I remember in the 1970s the 707 flights Lusaka-Nairobi-Bombay and back. We felt so safe and thrilled on 4-engine jetliners. Now we're travelling by train. Imprison the honchos of finance and engineering and the CEO. No trial required.

Uh, the Boeing whistleblower is dead...

My dad was an engineer at Boeing for 47 years. I grew up with the company and watching the changed taking place. I remember as a kid, hearing the name Harry Stonecipher from my dad with absolute disdain. He and other engineers were basically told by Boeing leadership that the problem with engineers is that they don't understand business. My dad was forced to retire back in 2015. He refuses to help Boeing these days.

The way it was when I worked for pratt & whitney in Ireland,if you made a mistake and held up your hand the mistake was fixed and there was not a problem....it was encouraged....if you tried to cover up your mistake or not own up to it or tried to blame someone else for your mistake you could be disciplined from a warning a suspension or even lose your job,so it was in your interest to raise your hand... We also used the ace tools like root cause analysis etc to find out how the mistake happened and to make sure it never happened again with targets of zero escapes which we achieved. Then we were shut down and our jobs moved to america and singapore ....😢

"Employees are afraid of retaliation when making complaints." Chilling that a Boeing whistle blower was recently found deceased under questionable circumstances.

i have worked in military aviation my entire life and the saying I always remembered from a young airman to now retired decades later, "why is there never time to do it right, but always time to do it over?" Boeing like our world of dismay boils down to simple GREED

A couple of issues here: At 7:45, Capt. Petter explains that MCAS moves the vertical stabilizer…incorrect. The vertical stabilizer is part of the rudder which controls the yaw axis. The correct term is the elevator which is part of the horizontal stabilizer which controls pitch authority. Prior to that however, Petter suggests that there were no issues with the flight characteristics of the MAX aircraft and that it was a stable design…questionable. Perhaps from a pilot’s viewpoint, but from a regulatory perspective, the MAX should never have been certified to begin with. Moving the larger engines forward was only one impact of the redesign. The other was to change the camber of the wing to accommodate the larger diameter engine nacelles in the re-engined MAX. This new shape of the wing changed the flying characteristics of the MAX dramatically from the previous models of 737 aircraft. In fact, it made the design negatively stable in certain angles of attack necessitating the MCAS modification. This is expressly contrary to the FAA’s Aircraft Certification protocols for Air Transport category aircraft requiring them to be POSITIVELY stable in all unusual attitudes expected during normal operations. The MAX should never have been certified as a Transport Category aircraft AT ALL due to these modifications. Read The Challenger Launch Decision by Diane Vaughn to get a good primer on the concept of the “normalization of deviance” and compare to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board report that cited the very same financial and political pressures exerted on NASA that derogated safety. In between those reports, as a palate cleanser, I would suggest reading Broken Rails by Christian Wolmar that provides a scathing account of how the privatization of the British Rail system led to disastrous consequences. All of this carnage could have been anticipated and avoided had safety been given its appropriate place in the top priorities of these endeavors rather than as lip service by the bean counting flunkies at Boeing.

When booking a flight always ask what Aircraft you are booked on.

I'm an Automotive technician and let me tell you, when their own technicians refused to board the same planes they fixed you know something shady is going on. Sad people had to die for greed again.

As a retired Boeing systems engineer from 1987 to 2010, I witness the glory days of Boeing and the emergent new Boeing. During those early days, the Company was truly run by engineers, and many were old-timers who didn't cut any corners. The words I heard the most throughout my tenure with the Company were "Airworthiness and Quality Engineering and Assurance." Meetings were held on these topics seemingly on a daily basis.

I worked for a company that made turbine blades for airplane engines and its inline with the video. MFG company was aquired by private equity firm who stopped re investing in operations and allowed facility to fail into disrepair. The manufacturing process could no longer produce parts within spec but a culture of fear and blaming lower level employees meant that nothing would interrupt production. Common practice included repeatedly processing the same part thru inspection and changing the serial number for parts that couldn't pass. I left that company about 4 years ago thinking it's only a matter of time before it comes down on them.

This happens when redundancy is removed in order to reduce costs, QC check points removed, and the less costly personal is preferred

Letting any company regulate themselves, be it Aerospace, Pharma or Agri is insane, and a great example of how stupid we are, to allow this to happen.

It is not only corporate governance problem, but also US government lobbying system problem.

Funnily enough my very first Air Crash Investigation video that I watched as a kid 20 years ago was the Aloha Airlines Boeing one, where the entire top half of one section got blown off. Seeing this feels like we've come a full circle, planes losing entire sections of fuselage and leaving the cabin directly open to the elements.

This is the best, most throrough and informative doccie I've seen on Boeing. Thank you for your amazing research and production skills. And for including insightful input from Mentour Pilot. 👌🏼🧡

I used to work as a contractor for Boeing where I helped them with inspections to ensure quality assurance. During my time there, I noticed that the quality assurance team and employees didn't care much about training their new employees. They often skipped important procedures and dismissed my concerns when I asked questions about how to do the job properly. When I brought it up to management, they didn't give me any feedback and justified the way things were done by saying that's how they've always done it. It seemed like nobody cared about the quality of their work and they only wanted me to sign off on things, even though I hadn't received the right training. I felt rushed to sign documents and received backlash when I asked too many questions. I decided to leave the job because of all the suspicious things going on behind the scenes. Although I was paid well, I didn't think money was more important than the lives of other people. I'm glad I left, but it worries me that the employees at Boeing don't seem to care about the quality of their work.

Back in 2011&2012 my late bf worked as pre flight and delivery inspector at Boeing. His early years was at Mcdonnell douglas, then was sent to Everett and worked his way up, survived many lay offs and strikes. He would be so upset after work as he would fail certain things during inspections that were faulty. His supervisor would give him a hard time wanting him to pass it anyway. They were behind on orders and was rushing through to get planes delivered. BF refused to pass it telling his supervisor that he didn't want the blood of anyone on his hands when plane crashes. Always next day when he return to shift the item he failed would be passed by someone else. It was a stressful situation for him.@16:00 dude saying they are being safe, checking every bolt, everything on plane and fix issues that are being reported is flat out lie . It's all about getting product out and sold for Boeing! Supervisors were warned about faulty bolts and parts, were failed by honest inspectors, one that I know for sure of. And his warnings were ignored! Nothing done to fix. Just covered up by others willing to compromise moral standards to human lives that would be at risk. Such a shame Boeing refused to listen and fix. I can't begin to imagine how many of the planes that parts were failed during inspections are now out being flown at the risk of innocent people's lives.

A level-headed and professional mini-documentary in the standards of great journalism.

This is what happens to EVERY COMPANY when profit becomes more important than engineering and quality. Instead of improving quality and advancements in engineering they rather invest most on maximizing profits and lobbying as much as possible. Another HUGE failure is allowing federal regulator to "sleep" in one bed with business and COMPLETELY loosing it's true position of being GUARANTOR of quality and safety. It's great to hear that similar EU regular is not corrupted (yet)... hope it's going to stay like that in the forseeable future. Thx Dagogo for another excellent ep of CF!

I had a couple retired Boeing engineers as a lecturers in college. Boeing recruited pretty heavily out of our program, but they warned us that it had become a bad place to be an engineer and to avoid it if possible.

Someone needs to tell the Pilot in the interview that it wasnt the Engineers that withheld information. It was the Management.

14:00 What happened to those corrupt senators? Investigation please!

❤ Your videos, relaxing and informative

Purposely removing any mention of MCAS from the operations manual is the highest form of recklessness. 😭

The heart of the problem is a culture of unrestrained greed over any other standard.

I saw in one documentary an engineer saying that this type of lousy construction/design/QA work will show up down the line, e.g. in 5 or 10 years time. That means for example that a defective bolt will not show any problem on a new plane, but it will break in eventually, causing a catastrophic tragedy. He mentioned that hundred of Boeing planes manufactured around a decade ago will start showing problems now, or they are already having tons problems. As an engineer myself, during my career in oil & gas I have seen this type of lies from certain managers, pushing things out of the door as fast as possible, cutting corners very aggressively.

Good job Mr Gogo of Cold Fusion

It’s not Boeing; it’s literally every major company in every industry these days. This is the system within which we live now.

I know 2 people who worked at Boeing for o er 30 years. They are both retired and can speak freely and honestly. They were not surprised by the disasters. They were expecting disasters because of the management changes. Greed killed all those people. Engineers were shut out of power, and the morale on the production floor had hit rock bottom over a decade ago. The FAA has some complicity, but my friends view the money grubbing management at Boeing to be truly responsible for the mess they and American aviation are in.

I'm an engineer and a pain in the ass for decision makers, my approach is to prove cutting corners will only be more expensive in the long run. The only way they listen to engineering is when it cost them more money

every time i watch your videos i am equally mesmerised by how awesome your voice is. the best one to listen to on all of youtube ❤️

Rule number 1 of aviation.... No single points of failure. Absolutely unacceptable to rely on a single angle of attack sensor

I doubt I will be flying any Boeing plane again. The 364 people have never left my mind. The young pilots and their young first officers! This tragedy is forever in our minds especially as a Kenyan. We are next door neighbours to Ethiopia and my Paeds sister knows the Getachews. We wept so much. But life goes on despite all the corruption from these huge corporates. Love Pietter so much

Priorities 1. Quality 2. Profit Boeing and other companies changed this rule. As an European I can't understand this.

Thank you so very much for all this information

Having Boeing regulate itself is like having a law enforcement agency investigating itself.

How many suits will be jailed for corporate manslaugher?I would imagine a big,fat zero.

What a well-made and informative video this is! You have a new subscriber. How could I NOT subscribe? Just a question: why show the cockpit of a Russian airliner at 5:18? I work as a QC so I spot details...

Great video! I’ve flown on the new 737-Max and an expensive hobby with tons of hours on my home build flight simulator. I use multiple flight sim software as they’re all a bit different. I can create a failure point in a sim flight to replicate what caused the two 737s to go down. Since I built the failure I was expecting it however when it happens I was able to recover the aircraft albeit with some damage to various systems. It basically bent the plane after putting to the limits so I didn’t hit the ground. Anyways, I have a lot of lost confidence in Boeing after a long time believing they were the safest planes built in the world. The older ones still in the air, depending on the airline’s maintenance are probably safer than the new Boeings coming off the line today. The use of things like carbon fibre freaks me out knowing that it is so,etching that can only be stretched a finite number of times before a catastrophic failure occurs. I’m no expert on what kind of stresses a plane with major parts made of carbon fibre can take or if there is a hard limit and must be replaced or regular inspections?? Too new to know maybe? Will these parts last as long as an aluminium twin? Just ranting here.. cheers everyone and fly safe.

I'm a mechanical engineer who develops similar level safety critical systems. (I can't say where) A problem like this CANNOT happen in an engineering environment unless EVERYONE directly and indirectly involved is incompetent or simply doesn't care. I can't understand how this could happen. From design to manufacturing to quality to audits, there's at least 200 people who look at the design/parts. They would ALL have to had miss (or ignore) these kinds of issues. To put simply, imagine yourself working in a bakery where the baker is coughing all over the food. Everyone working in the bakery, even if they're not the ones baking would obviously see or hear a baker coughing in the kitchen and say, 'I don't think the baker should be baking today'. the other bakers, the staff working at the register, the cleaners cleaning the sneeze guards, people bringing in the flour etc. Everyone would have to be on board for known issues to enter the market. In the case of Takata Airbags, Honda knew of the issue but continued to use the Airbags because they had a major share in Takata. In this case, the FAA and the airliners would also have known!

To start it needs to be illegal to lobby.

Hello, Mr. Altraide. I would like to thank you for producing this excellent video. Your erudition and articulation are greatly appreciated. I think all three of the reasons that you mentioned are responsible for Boeing's failures. It is absolutely mind-boggling that a corporation that specializes in an industry wherein safety and structural excellence are paramount could countenance getting away with cutting corners. It's as if they thought that there would never be consequences -- that is arrogance on a galactic scale. This also highlights one of the problems with monopolies in any given industry. The lack of any real competition can delude corporations into thinking that they can lower their standards on a whim. If the American airline manufacturing industry had more competition, then that alone would ensure that all parties are committed to delivering a quality product. Genuine competition by nature creates a system of checks and balances. The regulatory authorities created a monster -- fingers can and should be rightly pointed at multiple parties.

Thank you for a great informative video

Cutting corners always screws you over in the long run! A message for the ages

It genuinely makes me sad watching the pinnacle of human engineering fall apart and forgotten in the name of greed and profit.

I love to see people I subscribe to working together ❤

I am going to be having nightmares on my next flight, thank you.

My Grandpa was a boeing engineer for 20 years; he passed away in 2005. I still live about 15 minutes from their main facility- the largest building in the world. A couple years back I worked a contract there cleaning paint hangers. Its such a big part of industry here; I'm glad that my Grandpa never saw what has happened to Boeing...

As a software engineer one thing everyone has known forever is that all codes have bugs and unforeseen bugs,no matter who writes them and no matter how much it is tested, Just look at the weekly updates for windows in your PC for an idea ,of how even major corporation cannot stop all software issues. So mcas should never have been solely relied upon for critical action.

That Gordon Gecko reference out of thin air with no door on in a serious engineering doco was inspired, sir! 🤠

Excellent explanatory video. Can you comment on how different Boeing and the regulatory agencies' response were between the crash of two airliners from developing countries with hundreds of lives lost and the Alaska Airlines incident ? It seems in the latter case the response was more urgent and robust.

This video is chilling after finding out John Barnett, Boeing whistle blower and former employee, has been found dead.

Boeing is the perfect example of what could go wrong with corporate more willing to serve their shareholders instead of building great products or services!

It was weird Boeing moved its corporate headquarter from Seattle to Chicago. The headquarter doesn't want to be with the engineering groups.

Two of my favorite KZfaqrs doing a collab? Absolutely awesome

3 minutes in and the biggest problem is addressed for all big companies, stockholders profit. As someone that holds stocks I want to invest for the long run in a company that produces quality products. Not profit that will get lost in a lawsuit.

Great discussion and presentation. I was an employee of Boeing for 6 years (Navigational Solutions). After leaving Boeing I was involved with safety and compliance auditing for business and commercial aviation. One of the most important aspects to an aerospace operation is what we called “Just Culture”. You nailed it. Every employee, regardless of position, must feel comfortable reporting safety concerns or incidents without fear of retaliation. When profits are placed above this culture, key things are ignored and missed concerning operational safety. I will not get into my feelings on Boeing. I will say leaving a company in a segment like passenger travel, to self regulate can quickly lead to cut corners attempting to save the bottom line. Federal Aviation Regulations are written in blood, FAR compliance along with a just culture in place will lead to incredibly safe operations. Also, aerospace MUST be a meritocracy. The most qualified people should be hired, period. I’ll leave that there…

4:45 Nature of the scandal 5:14 Consequences 6:10 tragedies 9:41 repercussions 11:18 Alaskan airlines incident 20:00 mutual responsibility

I don't believe I would knowingly get on a plane that came out of the South Carolina Factory. I'm of the old school, Take pride in your work and craftsmanship.

Slight correction: yes, the passengers were lucky with the door incident, had it happened at cruising altitude the consequences could well have been far worse. But it wasn't just luck, it's also thanks to the skills of the crew aboard, pilots and flight attendants alike that kept this a zero fatality incident. I listened to the whole radio conversation between the pilot and the tower, and she's a badass: calm and collected all throughout, and when the tower saw that they were descdening a bit faster than ideal when coming to land (understandable, they have no idea at this point as to how long the plane will stay intact, so hurrying up makes sense) and the controler asks her if they need to do a go-around (meaning: to circle around and get a better landing speed/angle), she just calmly goes: "I think we got it, Alaska 1282." and then seconds later puts the plane down like a glove. That's some true skill and professionalism there, Boeing should be taking some notes.

I think the fact that the plug was hidden and just looked like a regular row of windows from the inside would've made it even more terrifying for the passengers. I can imagine it would be terrifying enough if a door that *looked* like a door flew off, but to have a random hole rip out of the side of the plane just seems so much worse

Calhoun’s quote on “our customers”….customers are their shareholders.

Fine opportunity for Lockheed to get back into passenger jets. The L1011 was a great jet liner.

I've spent the better part of a decade working the aerospace industry. It's a well-known rule that you DON'T work for Boeing for many of these reasons. You're treated as expendable, asked to do ethically questionable things with the engineering, and then inevitably laid off after at best a couple of years. A friend of mine used to subcontract (worked for another company but worked on a Boeing program) and he said even with the perks of being a sub it was still miserable.

I vividly remember when Boeing used to actually care about travel safety. Sad watching to this. I used to have a lot of respect for Boeing.

These examples are perfect for reinforcing the fact that you should only take off your seatbelt or go to the lavatory if it’s an emergency.

Same changes happened in other American companies. Safety, quality, the company reputation, we're abandoned and all those important standards upheld till now have been replaced by cutting cost in design, production time, or material choices. It is the slow death of this and other companies that are steered by pencil pushers.

When I worked for Boeing, my boss said if I spoke up (on a non-aviation) program, I would be laid off at first chance.

If refrigerators are built on the cheap with components that fail.in a short time it usually doesn’t kill people. If an airliner producer cuts corners passengers and crew die.

In 1989, United airlines flight 811 (Boeing 747-122) had explosive decompression incident, 9 passengers were ejected. Despite extensive air and sea searches, no remains of the nine victims lost in flight were found at sea. 4  Multiple small body fragments and pieces of clothing were found in the Number 3 engine, indicating that at least one victim ejected from the fuselage was ingested by the engine, but whether the fragments were from one or more victims was not known.

Mentor Pilot is wrong. The 737 Max was unstable. Nothing 'crept' into the MCAS. The Max was unstable because Boeing engineers thought MCAS was only needed at cruising speeds to compensate for the forward nose-up attitude due to the new mounting position of the more powerful and larger Leap engines, a few small adjustments by MCAS to the stabilizer trim on the screw jack..but.. it was so unstable that engineers discovered they needed MCAS to compensate just after takeoff after flaps were withdrawn and auto stabilizer trim engaged. Basically MCAS was needed for most of the time required to ascend to cruising altitude. Of course the flip-flopping of AoA sensors on each subsequent flight added to the Russian Roulette of chance to when a faulty sensor would decide the fate of all souls onboard.

Been at Boeing 20yrs. They outsource so much engineering to India, Russia, etc. just to save a buck. They don’t care that it’s costing them billions in the end. It’s sickening

I've worked with QC and left three companies in horror after witnessing so many mal practices. People always tend to blame the ones who bring up issues to light. "Out of sight, out of mind as many people says today. And they don't want you to record your findings so they can pretend unawareness if they get caught. Certifications relies too heavily on self reporting and self regulation, no one takes time to take a closer look to things that are very easy to find.

Seat cover changes on rows 4 through 30 A B & C

This seems very similar to what happened to the British motorcycle industry. “Businessmen” took over for designers and engineers and then destroyed everything.

One of the biggest issues with employee feedback is when concerns are presented and nothing changes because the managers don’t care. It really sucks that this continues to happen, maybe what’s needed is to revamp who is considered for management rolls. An mba really doesn’t mean jack, I’d prefer to work for someone who moved up to their current position doing the same job they are now supervising.

I worked for them here in the Uk, and even though they have provided me with the pathway into aviation, I was becoming more and more sick of their ways, until I couldn't handle it anymore and left, I am so happy right now with my life, that I struggle to find words for it. They always, and I mean always prioritise profits over absolutely anything, it's hardwired into the corporate system, the more money is saved by leadership, the bigger bonuses for the year, leading to selfishness and greed instead of first time quality. There are some seriously smart engineers within the company, yet they are seen as the bottom of the pile compared to someone in the office, because to progress within the company, one must end up in the office. Anyway, its all fake, their pr team works absolute overtime to tick boxes and improve the image of the company. It breaks my heart because i thought i would retire from working with them and i could barely last 4 years. Superb video and very factual.

For the public: we urge our employees to speak up For the employees: we just KILLED a whistle-blower, do you STILL want to speak up?!

Make no mistake, they tried to cut costs by removing quality control personal (inspectors) and here we are…

I disagree with Mentour on a few issues. One that whistleblower reporting. Dominic Gates who is a reporter that works for the Seattle Times had a whistleblower at Boeing and was reporting quality defects and issues. Boeing found that whistleblower and fired him from his job. Boeing in the past has used their contacts in the government to find whistleblowers in their company to fire them. Its happening even now since Boeing's culture has not changed. The current whistleblower to reveal that their were no bolts on the doors revealed that at Leeham News. Everyone there was warning that whistleblower to clean out his computer and make sure he can't be traced. Even Dominic Gates went over to the forums and requested a meeting with the Whistleblower as did reporters from sites like Reuters, CNN and other news sites. And of course we find out that their were no bolts on the doors. This was days before news broke into the media. The way Boeing works, they work to intimidate and bring fear to the work place, so no one speaks up if they see any quality issues arise. This isn't going to change over night or even be done anytime soon. The management at those Boeing plants need to be fired.

Reporting issues got me in a tight spot once. A situation was created, that made me resign. I took a month's break, joined another company, a much smaller one. Then, one day, these previous company folks called me, asking some questions about how I used to do certain things. I simply said, I don't remember any more, disconnected the call. Thankfully, in my line of business, people lose a truck load of money if things go wrong, nobody loses their life.

I work as a QA engineer in the European aerospace industry and the fight to keep quality above production deadlines is still around, though it's not in the same league as Boeing. Fortunately this has realigned people's views on quality being paramount instead of "well it's fit for purpose" mentality. It's just sad that this is what had to happen in order for people to take notice

Wow this didn't age well. Need to feel safe that you can speak up and then someone speaks up and doesn't just lose their job but suddenly decides to take their life...

Back in the 1990's Al-Jazera did a long story on shortcuts and bad practices at a Boeing manufacturing plant in the US, that had been reported by the union. It was a TV news item about 40+ minutes long, shown on Dateline SBS back in the Jana Wendt hosting days.

The American aerospace industry used to be the main source of pride, now it is a source of shame. How dare these executives bring it down.

I would like to add that this extends beyond Boeing. The idea of maximizing shareholder value (increasing stock price) inherently values short term cost cutting over long term investment

So thankful we travellers get product choice at departure gate.

I have been part of a Navy team that did inspections of the P-8 Poseidon. We had so many critical findings our team was removed from the acceptance inspections. Why? The program office said that the government team could do the inspections that my group does even though they don’t have the years long specialized experience we have. My thoughts? Think of the worst. Wonder why so many from the program office retired and went to work for Boeing? Prove me wrong people.

I worked for McDonnell Douglas through the Merger and I hate to see that the blame is put on Douglas for the changes. Why? Because its paints a picture of the people employed by MD were also part of that crappy greedy mindset that upper management had. We were not of that mindset. We were proud dedicated employees who cared a ton about First Time Quality and not profits. It was very unfortunate that we were being led by the biggest bean counter of all time, Harry Stonecipher and he carried over to Boeing.

excellent documentary

I've started actually checking what type of plane I'm flying in before booking my flight. Never done that before. If it's a Boeing, I'll look for another carrier. It's just not worth the risk.