AS Flight1282: Another Boeing 737 MAX crisis

[AmtrakMaineiac]

I wonder how much these reported incidents are having on people's perception of air safety which I know statistically is still very good. My sister in law who normally flies is now seriously considering taking Amtrak to go see her brother in Tennessee and was asking me as the local "rail expert" for advice.

 

[Trogdor]

There was one thing I was trying to find a way to say earlier, both in this thread, and in the thread I made about the economics of low cost airlines. Some of the discussions went into the weeds a bit, but I've found a single phrase to simplify my position:

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

It now looks like a systemic problem at Boeing, not just a maintenance accident.
When I asked how low cost carriers could recoup the cost of a $100 million airplane, people said they don't pay the list price---that they often get them at a steep discount. Well, if a company is selling a $100 million airplane for $50 million---something has to give. Of course there are one-off cases of overproduction and the like, but when a business model constantly pressures ticket prices down, and that pressures aircraft prices down, something has to give.

It doesn’t cost Boeing (nor Airbus) $100 million to build a single-aisle airplane. Even if they build things correctly with proper quality controls, I’d be surprised if the marginal cost of manufacturing is more than $20-30 million.

There’s really no reason a properly run production line couldn’t profitably produce and deliver planes at the actual prices airlines charge. After all, they’ve been profitably doing so for years.

Boeing has lots of problems, but the prices airlines pay for its planes isn’t one of them.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

First, a major Boeing whistleblower commits suicide shortly before a key court appearance. I'm not much of a conspiracy guy, but there's no doubt he'd still be alive if Boeing had treated him decently.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/12/...e_code=1.cU0.Fg-O.3lSjyT3apSg7&smid=url-share


Both gifted from behind paywall. You're welcome. I need to go refill my popcorn...

I saw a post on another forum - because, as we all know everything on the internet and everything you read online is always true - that the whistleblower said to friends shortly before his death, that if something happens to me, it wasn't suicide.

 

[Brian Battuello]

Easy google search turned up a reasonably reputable source:

https://www.newsweek.com/john-barnett-boeing-whistleblower-predicted-death-scandal-1879548

 

[JamesWhitcombRiley]

Easy google search turned up a reasonably reputable source:

https://www.newsweek.com/john-barnett-boeing-whistleblower-predicted-death-scandal-1879548

Newsweek is no longer reliable (Time is!), but Quartz (reliable) reports it's from an interview with a family member on local TV news, so that seems pretty real, at least as an interview: https://wpde.com/news/local/if-anyt...n-before-death-south-carolina-abc-news-4-2024 (does not work in Firefox, but don't play the Manchurian Candidate music yet, it works in Chrome).

Newsweek's demise is well-known, but for reference here is the Wikipedia editorial consensus, which is where I got the ratings for Time and Quartz: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Perennial_sources.

 

[jis]

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