More of the same from Boeing:


Simple Flying - New Air Force One Presidential Boeing 747 1st Flight Delayed To 2026


Maximus Aviation - No CEO Talk But A HUGE Boeing UPDATE KLM, Southwest, Loose Bolts On 787 Huge Fraud Coverup Plus More



So... Really... According to the Boeing PR people, there is no concern about flying with loose bolts or loose nuts?...

Ouch?!

Fly safe??
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
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Thanks for that...

My view is that the DoJ must take action, else they and the FAA, and NTSB, all fall into complete disrepute...


... And then there is politics and whatever corruption...

Fly safe with that?
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Looking like Boeing is having the same issue that plagues many public companies. Labor and too many layers of hard inflexible rules.

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'Just' a 'normal' week for Boeing-in-the-news?...


See:

Boeing Angers Safety Officials With Disclosures on 737 Max Incident
wrote:

... the National Transportation Safety Board became aware of the remarks at the briefing and rebuked the company hours before articles on the remarks were published. It said that Boeing improperly shared investigative information and speculated about the cause of the incident, adding that the company had “blatantly violated” the agency’s rules surrounding active investigations. The agency said it would provide details about that violation to the Justice Department, which is investigating the January flight.

“As a party to many N.T.S.B. investigations over the past decades, few entities know the rules better than Boeing,” the agency said in a statement.

The N.T.S.B. also said that it would revoke Boeing’s access to investigative information and that the company would not be allowed to ask questions of other participants at a hearing in August, for which it plans to subpoena Boeing witnesses. The agency said it confirmed the company’s violation after obtaining a transcript of the press briefing from Boeing. The agency’s rebuke of the company was earlier reported by The Air Current...

... “It is crucial that the investigation speaks with one voice — that of the N.T.S.B. — to prevent the release of inaccurate, misleading, unconfirmed and out-of-context investigative information to the media, public and lawmakers, which is exactly what occurred during Boeing’s media briefing,”...

Astronauts stranded in space due to multiple issues with Boeing's Starliner — and the window for a return flight is closing
wrote:

NASA and Boeing engineers are troubleshooting various faults in the Starliner spacecraft. But with only 45 days of docking time available, the window for return is closing.

Editor's note: NASA announced on Friday that Starliner's troubleshooting has been extended for a third time, meaning that the astronauts will stay aboard the International Space Station indefinitely until some time in July...

Investigation after Ryanair Boeing 737 plunges 2,000ft in 17 seconds reaching 321mph
wrote:

A Ryanair Boeing 737-Max airliner is under investigation after it descended at high speed on approach to Stansted Airport last year...

... Investigating the “serious incident”, the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) logged the aircraft’s steep decline as a “high speed and high nose down pitch attitude” during a go-around procedure. The Ryanair Boeing made the “unstable approach” far faster than the acceptable descent rate rules, after aborting the original landing...

... No passengers on the 197-seat aircraft were injured during the abrupt descent, but flight records show that the Boeing 737 airliner did not take off in the two days following the incident...

... A full investigation by the AAIB into the rare incident is ongoing – flight FR1269 is one of just six airline incidents in the UK to prompt such a probe last year. The AAIB said: “The serious incident is still under investigation and so we can’t provide any further detail at the moment...

Boeing plane horror as jet forced to land after windscreen cracks at 40,000 ft
wrote:

... The airline issued an apology to passengers affected by the disruption, and provided overnight accommodation before they completed their journey the following day...

Thirteen Passengers Injured As Boeing Plane Malfunctions
wrote:

Thirteen passengers onboard a Korea Airlines flight to Taiwan have been taken to hospital, after their Boeing aircraft dropped more than 25,000 feet following a fault in the cabin pressurization system...

... The plane subsequently dropped from an altitude of 35,000 feet to under 10,000 feet within the span of ten minutes...

... Passengers were forced to put on oxygen masks which dropped from the ceiling...

... The Boeing 737 subsequently diverted back to Incheon airport, where passengers waited until Sunday morning for a replacement flight...

... The rapid change in cabin pressure caused multiple passengers to suffer from headaches, hyperventilation, eardrum pain and nosebleeds...

A Boeing whistleblower says he saw holes being drilled incorrectly on 787 planes, adding to the chorus of people speaking up against the company
wrote:

• Another whistleblower has come forward with complaints of Boeing's safety lapses.
  
• Richard Cuevas said that he saw holes drilled improperly, which could lead to "catastrophe."
  
• The airplane mechanic said he was fired from his job shortly after raising concerns.
  

... workers were drilling holes into the fasteners of the plane's forward pressure bulkhead, which were bigger than what Boeing had specified.

They did this to "clear excess paint from the holes and speed up a slow process," per the complaint. Cuevas said that the faults could lead to a loss of air pressure in the flight and run the risk of power failure...

FAA Issues New Safety Directive For Boeing 757-200 Over Cracking Concerns
wrote:

... Directive addresses potential in-flight depressurization...

... targeting specific structural issues...

... If unaddressed, these issues could lead to significant in-flight depressurization and compromise the aircraft’s structural integrity, emphasizing the critical nature of these repairs...

Boeing is just too big to jail
wrote:

Justice isn’t always blind. When it comes to levying punishments on powerful companies, the challenge is to inflict enough pain that bad behavior is deterred, but not so much that it creates unintended suffering elsewhere. Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab, an American icon in a heap of trouble, exemplifies that quandary...

... shielded it from criminal prosecution, but in which it admitted former employees had misled regulators, pledged to do better, and paid $2.5 billion. The government says Boeing has failed to live up to its side of the bargain. Boeing disagrees.

There’s a problem, though. Boeing is a national champion with a big economic footprint...

Fly safe with that?...


Just to be fair, for the same search for Airbus for the week, I get:

Engine maker's Boeing dilemma seen weighing on Airbus output revision

Airbus cuts key targets and takes hefty Space charge
wrote:

... took a hefty 900-million-euro ($965 million) charge for its troubled space activities as Europe's largest aerospace group sought a clean slate approach to supply disruptions and commercial risks...

... As a result of the lower delivery forecasts, which imply annual growth of 5% instead of 9%, Airbus lowered its main financial targets for 2024...

Airbus trims full-year delivery forecast and pushes back A320neo ramp-up schedule

Airbus: Major space division problems

All a very different type of headline news!



My reading and personal understanding is that Boeing has indeed very much angered the NTSB! ... All in a vain attempt to shed blame?...

Choose to fly safe?


Happy flying!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Window cracks are far more common than one would really like. They affect all makers and all types of "heavy" aircraft. They are most often associated with impact damage near a corner, which some time later rapidly propagate, frequently after a change in altitude and thus temperature (either increase or decrease). Detailed inspection is very difficult to do when the aircraft is on the ground but not in a service hanger so tends not to be done on a daily basis but after so many hours/flights.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Yes, thanks, agreed, and the windows are multi-layer so that a depressurization shouldn't occur...

So... That is the one headline out of those eight.

What of the others for Boeing?...


Fly safe???...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Read into this what you might:




NASA orders more tests on Starliner, but says crew isn’t stranded in space
wrote:

... Two NASA astronauts, commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams, will spend at least a few more weeks on the space station as engineers on the ground conduct thruster tests to better understand issues with the Starliner propulsion system...

... The test flight is now likely to last at least a month and a half, and perhaps longer, as engineers wrestle with helium leaks and thruster glitches on Starliner's service module.

Batteries on this Starliner spacecraft were initially only certified for a 45-day mission duration, but NASA officials said they are looking at extending the limit after confirming the batteries are functioning well...

... keeping the spacecraft at the station for the next few weeks is to give engineers time to test a Starliner thruster on the ground. As it approached the station earlier this month, the craft's control software deemed five of Starliner's 28 reaction control system thrusters unusable...

... more work to do to determine why these five thrusters ran into problems in the first place.

So engineers will take an identical thruster on the ground and test-fire it at a NASA facility ... The test will take a couple of weeks...

... Boeing's Starliner spacecraft encountered similar thruster issues on an unpiloted test flight in 2022, and engineers thought software corrections would resolve the problem. "We clearly missed something,"...

Echoes of MCAS?

Fly safe??
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

nay, the failed part(s) don't come back so they can't put them under a microscope in a lab, hence run every test and diagnostic and anything any madman can dream up until you run out of time, and pray in some of that data there is a hint of what went wrong or where. That's NASA SOP. Squeeze every bit out.

It wouldn't surprise me to hear that the wrong parts got into the go bin. Say a sealant intended for ground tests goes up and not the sealant intended for actual flight. Just a bad single pair of eyeballs misreading a part number or serial number, unless done maliciously. <ed> Like drill holes on Soyuz.

Boeing Angers Safety Officials With Disclosures on 737 Max Incident
wrote:

... the National Transportation Safety Board became aware of the remarks at the briefing and rebuked the company hours before articles on the remarks were published. It said that Boeing improperly shared investigative information and speculated about the cause of the incident, adding that the company had “blatantly violated” the agency’s rules surrounding active investigations. The agency said it would provide details about that violation to the Justice Department, which is investigating the January flight.

“As a party to many N.T.S.B. investigations over the past decades, few entities know the rules better than Boeing,” the agency said in a statement.

Boeing also once knew how to build the best airplanes. Both probably depended on experienced employees who are no longer there.

The cost of letting penny pinching bean counters run a company keeps on climbing as a deadline from the DOJ fast approaches.

Boeing to Buy Major Supplier in Outsourcing Reversal.

Hours after news broke that the US Justice Department plans to charge Boeing with criminal fraud for violating a 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement, Boeing announced a $4.7 billion plan to buy back Spirit AeroSystems, a major fuselage supplier it sold two decades ago.

The merger, valued at approximately $8.3 billion, involves an all-stock transaction with Spirit shareholders receiving Boeing shares. The deal includes Spirit's debt and is expected to close in mid-2025, pending regulatory and shareholder approvals......

Oh, that puts Airbus under pressure as well. Spirit builds many components for Airbus, especially for the A350 and A220, formerly the Bombardier C-Series. Other aircraft manufacturers depend on Spirit too.

Airbus agreed with Spirit to take over four Spirit factories. I still don't understand why Spirit has to pay Airbus $559 million for this "aquisition":

Airbus enters agreement with Spirit AeroSystems

Airbus SE [...] has entered into a binding term sheet agreement with Spirit AeroSystems in relation to a potential acquisition of major activities related to Airbus, notably the production of A350 fuselage sections in Kinston, North Carolina, U.S., and St. Nazaire, France; of the A220’s wings and mid-fuselage in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Casablanca, Morocco; as well as of the A220 pylons in Wichita, Kansas, U.S.

The transaction would cover the acquisition of these activities. Airbus will be compensated by payment of $559 million from Spirit AeroSystems, for a nominal consideration of $1.00, subject to adjustments including based on the final transaction perimeter.

Boeing to plead guilty to criminal fraud charge

BBC News, New York, 8 July 2024, 05:15 BST

Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge after the US found the company violated a deal meant to reform it after two fatal crashes by its 737 Max planes that killed 346 passengers and crew.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) said the plane-maker had also agreed to pay a criminal fine of $243.6m (£190m).

However, the families of the people who died on the flights five years ago have criticised it as a "sweetheart deal" that would allow Boeing to avoid full responsibility for the deaths.

The settlement must now be approved by a US judge.

No profits to be had.

Boeing Suffers $1.4 Billion Loss in "Challenging" Quarter.

Boeing has struggled to find its footing in the second quarter, with low deliveries and "supply chain constraints" taking their toll on the company's top and bottom lines.

In the three months ended June 30, Boeing's revenue fell 15 percent to $16.9 billion from $19.8 billion in the same period in 2023.

However, the more troubling figures were the company's losses.

Boeing's core operating loss trebled to $1.39 billion from $390 million a year prior, while its net loss increasing nearly ten-fold to $1.43 billion from $149 million.

The company said that these lackluster results reflected "lower commercial delivery volume and losses on fixed-price defense development programs.".......

NTSB to start two day hearing about the Door Plug blowout, today, Tuesday.

Witnesses will tell a federal safety board about the blowout on a Boeing 737 Max earlier this year

Investigators will question Boeing officials during a hearing starting Tuesday about the midflight blowout of a panel from a 737 Max, an accident that further tarnished the company’s safety reputation and left it facing new legal jeopardy.

The two-day hearing could provide new insight into the Jan. 5 accident, which caused a loud boom and left a gaping hole in the side of the Alaska Airlines jet.

The National Transportation Safety Board has said in a preliminary report that four bolts that help secure the panel, which is call a door plug, were not replaced after a repair job in a Boeing factory, but the company has said the work was not documented. During the two-day hearing, safety board members are expected to question Boeing officials about the lack of paperwork that might have explained how such a potentially tragic mistake occurred.

“The NTSB wants to fill in the gaps of what is known about this incident and to put people on the record about it,” said John Goglia, a former NTSB member. The agency will be looking to underscore Boeing’s failures in following the process it had told the Federal Aviation Administration it was going to use in such cases, he said.

The safety board will not determine a probable cause after the hearing. That could take another year or longer. It is calling the unusually long hearing a fact-finding step.

Unbelievable?...


Maximus Aviation - ... NASA Asks SpaceX For Help. NASA/Boeing CAN NOT RISK Crew To Save Face!


Maximus Aviation - NASA WARNS! Unmanned Starliner Could DESTROY The ISS. It Was NEVER Programed For Automatic Flight


AA - NASA has been hiding a shocking secret about Starliner! How did this happen??



Ouch?

Really? Is Boeing's Starliner return going to be another Boeing 'gamble'?...

Greedy profit is to triumph over good safety?


Fly safe?
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

If I was one of the astronauts "stuck" on the ISS I certainly would not want a ride back on that ticking time bomb space capsule.

Elon Musk will have to send a Dragon Spaceship to retrieve them.

Boeing at one time had great and reliable products. Mismanagement and Greed set in and the rest is history.

And thus! Lo!! Behold!!!

Boeing is to redesign the Plug Door... AND retrofit them on all planes using them...


See, hear:

Simple Flying - Boeing Will Redesign 737 MAX Door Plug To Prevent Another Blowout


Is that all carefully profitably timed to be after the life threatening event yet before the NTSB can report?...

Fly safe??
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)