The company failed 33 of 89 audits during an examination conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration after a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines jet in January.
I don’t think this ends in beheadings, but there will (hopefully) be significant follow on effects. A threat to consumer confidence in flying is a risk to the entire industry, all Boeing’s competitors and the airlines will be screaming for the FAA to get the actions right here…
Competitors… You mean Airbus, the EU sponsored counterpart to Boeing? And literally no one else?
There’s almost no competition in the airliner space - both Boeing and Airbus are also state subsidised to a certain extent. Their mere existence is a strategic asset.
Either of them failing would have large global consequences… At worst, Boeing might no longer be able to hire their own FCC inspectors… At worst.
Even the smaller competitors like Bombardier would have an interest in this, even if they are not the manufacturers of similar sized aircraft, a loss of faith in the aviation industry hurts everyone too. Plus suppliers etc.
As for the investigators (I know you meant FAA, not FCC), we have a similar issue in medical devices - you need seriously well educated experts to perform the investigations, and it is hard to find any without industry experience which wouldn’t look good on paper. The solution is to try as hard as you can to not have ex-employees audit their ex-bosses, but it isn’t always possible so we accept some overlap. It doesn’t mean these people don’t take their job seriously.
I don’t think this ends in beheadings, but there will (hopefully) be significant follow on effects. A threat to consumer confidence in flying is a risk to the entire industry, all Boeing’s competitors and the airlines will be screaming for the FAA to get the actions right here…
One would think so, but I haven’t heard a peep out of them.
Weird.
Competitors… You mean Airbus, the EU sponsored counterpart to Boeing? And literally no one else?
There’s almost no competition in the airliner space - both Boeing and Airbus are also state subsidised to a certain extent. Their mere existence is a strategic asset.
Either of them failing would have large global consequences… At worst, Boeing might no longer be able to hire their own FCC inspectors… At worst.
Even the smaller competitors like Bombardier would have an interest in this, even if they are not the manufacturers of similar sized aircraft, a loss of faith in the aviation industry hurts everyone too. Plus suppliers etc.
As for the investigators (I know you meant FAA, not FCC), we have a similar issue in medical devices - you need seriously well educated experts to perform the investigations, and it is hard to find any without industry experience which wouldn’t look good on paper. The solution is to try as hard as you can to not have ex-employees audit their ex-bosses, but it isn’t always possible so we accept some overlap. It doesn’t mean these people don’t take their job seriously.
Bombardier is 75% owned by Airbus now. There are hardly any competitors left, even small ones