Travel app Kayak offers Boeing 737 Max 9 filter after that door plug drama
- Reference: 1705949387
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/01/22/travelers_takes_kayaks_filter_function/
- Source link:
Though not one of the Boeing MAX 9 planes [1]grounded by the FAA earlier this month after Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 lost a door in mid-flight, the 737-900ER [2]uses the same door design .
The incident has prompted air travelers to pay more attention to the aircraft models carrying them through the skies. According to travel booking service Kayak, usage of the company's aircraft Model filtering function surged 15x between Saturday, January 6 and Thursday, January 11.
[3]
The online ticket booking site introduced its Model filter in 2019.
[4]
[5]
The 737 MAX 8 was involved in [6]two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019, resulting in the deaths of 346 people. Those incidents have been attributed in large part to the MCAS, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, which was intended to help the plane maintain a specific attitude but ended up confounding pilots and killing those onboard Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.
Kayak's Model option, which offers "Include" and "Exclude" radio buttons on flight results pages, currently lets travelers filter flight queries by the type of aircraft scheduled. It lists: Airbus 220, 320neo, 330neo, 350, and 380; Boeing 737 MAX 8, 747, 777, 787, and Other categories.
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"Previously, you could filter out Max planes from your travel search on Kayak but the Max 8 and Max 9 planes were lumped together in one search," a company spokesperson told The Register . "As of January 9, we updated our aircraft filter to be more granular so you could parse out the Max 8 and Max 9 planes from your travel search."
[8]Another airline finds loose bolts in Boeing 737-9 during post-blowout fleet inspections
[9]Apple sets new 16,000-foot iPhone drop test after 737 fuselage fail
[10]Nearly 200 Boeing 737 MAX 9 airplanes grounded after door plug flies off mid-flight
[11]Boeing discovers Dreamliner defect, delivery delay decided
Last Wednesday, the FAA said it was "investigating Boeing’s manufacturing practices and production lines, including those involving subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems, bolstering its oversight of Boeing, and examining potential system change."
That same day, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun visited supplier Spirit AeroSystems, source of the door plug that blew out, in Wichita, Kansas, and [12]told employees, "We’re going to get better, not because the two of us are talking, but because the engineers at Boeing, the mechanics at Boeing, the inspectors at Boeing, the engineers at Spirit, the mechanics at Spirit, the inspectors at Spirit — they’re going to speak the same language on this in every way, shape or form. We’re going to learn from it, and then we’re going to apply it to literally everything else we do together.”
When he took over in 2020 after CEO Dennis Muilenburg was ousted in late 2019 over the MAX crashes, Calhoun [13]said , "With the strength of our team, I'm confident in the future of Boeing, including the 737 MAX." ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/08/boeing_737_max_9_airplanes/
[2] https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-statement-recommending-visual-inspections-boeing-737-900er-mid-exit-door-plugs
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Za9H-GT@GgReI3ybYSZ3OAAAAUk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Za9H-GT@GgReI3ybYSZ3OAAAAUk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Za9H-GT@GgReI3ybYSZ3OAAAAUk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/15/boeing_737_max_senate_report/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Za9H-GT@GgReI3ybYSZ3OAAAAUk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/09/united_alaska_737_loose_bolts/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/08/apple_iphone_16000_drop/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/08/boeing_737_max_9_airplanes/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/07/boeing_787_production_defect/
[12] https://www.boeing.com/737-9-updates/index.page
[13] https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2020-01-13-Calhoun-Begins-Role-as-Boeing-President-and-CEO
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: When a company
That window case was shocking.
The supplies person knew what bolts were needed, and told the engineer. But the engineer wanted bolts that matched what he'd taken out of the aircraft. The bolts he'd removed were a size too small, but by luck had happened to work. The engineer accidentally picked up bolts that were a further size smaller, thinking they were the same. They weren't, and promptly failed on the next flight.
The senior maintenance engineer was rushed to achieve production targets at the repair organisation.
He never took the time to check the manufacturers instructions for performing any work. It didn't help that finding the instructions would have been a long and complicated process involving checking lots of paperwork to see if there had been changes to the procedure that had not been applied to the main instruction book yet. He considered "not looking up the instructions" to be normal.
He also couldn't see his work area well because of how the plane was parked. Again, getting it moved would have meant a long delay, the staff needed to do that were not working the night shift.
He was also "trying out" a different, unapproved torque wrench, so did not realise he hadn't tightened any of the bolts properly (because they would not tighten, they were just turning in the hole).
Re: When a company
Even more shocking that the window was bolted on from the outside, instead of the inside where air pressure would hold it in place. Same issue with the max 9 door plug. Emergency exits open inwards and are held in place by air pressure while in flight. Door plugs replacing emergency exits should be the same.
Re: When a company
>> That window case was shocking
> Even more shocking that the window was bolted on from the outside
So that they could save the time and money when attaching them on the inside.
Its not just the door plugs...
It's obvious Boeing is culturally bankrupt. It's not just the MAX fiasco. And the door plug was one week after a previous 'ground them all' inspection where there where loose bolts on a safety critical system in the tail assembly. This shit should be checked and rechecked... probably IS being checked and rechecked and it's still wrong.
The Starliner program has also had some serious issues. And not just the ones on flight hardware where it didn't quite make it to orbit. They managed to also take _checkout photos_ to document the state of the parachutes on a drop test that clearly showed one of the parachutes was NOT connected to the airframe... and somebody then proceeded to pack the parachutes in that state. I'm sure they are ISO compliant in more ways that I could even imagine... but compliant isn't the same thing as giving a damn about quality. I mean good news! 2 out of the 3 parachutes opened, good thing for redundancy... but wow, they had _photos_.
Quailty Is Not ISO9000
ISO9000 is about consistency, doing it the same way every time so if you don't get the process and quality right and document that then you make the same shit product every time :-(
Re: Quailty Is Not ISO9000
And, even if your process and documentation are right ISO9000 doesn't prove you actually follow it.
Re: Quailty Is Not ISO9000
Unfortunately ISO9000 just shows you can tick boxes, not if you can actually do the work
The bigger question
If they are already finding bolts loose or improperly installed on the plug doors on other aircraft, and with the loose bolts in the tail assembly from a couple of weeks ago, should any of the airframes coming out of Boeing be trusted?
I think at this point, every aircraft that came out of Boeing in the last few years needs to be completely disassembled and put back together with proper inspections this time. They need to ground all Boeing products until they can be completely inspected inside out.
Re: The bigger question
Would be nice if they could force Boeing execs to travel on every non-remediated plane scheduled for regular operation until the problem is fixed. I guarantee you none of them use anything but extensively maintained private jet fleets.
Have they never heard of flanges
Have they never heard of flanges. So even if the bolts fail the differential pressure would keep the door firmly plugged into the doorway..
When a company
Puts profits over safety cause "we just have to rush these inspections through for money".
Engineer Dave "But I can't get it done quicker. We need to do the checks properly"
Manager "If you can't, I'll replace you with someone who can"
This appears to the mentality of businesses these days. More senior management need to go to jail.
Having said that on an air crash investigate episode the cockpit window blew out and sucked the pilot half out and knocked him out. He lived. When they did all their checks they discovered the bolts for the window were wrong. The engineer, instead of referring to the spec manual they are supposed to (could this be due to being rushed?) he replaced with the bolts that were currently on the window that were already wrong from another engineer.