News

Ed Pierson, a former senior manager at Boeing's 737 Factory in Renton, Washington, raised concerns to his supervisors about the dangerously unstable production environment and risks to the safety of airplanes.

The factory was plagued with overworked employees, chronic part shortages, quality issues, and unrelenting schedule pressure to deliver MAX airplanes.

Ed recommended Boeing leadership shutdown production operations before both crashes, but sadly he was ignored.

After the crashes he implored the leaders of the NTSB, FAA, and DOT to conduct a thorough investigation of the factory and to involve international accident investigators, but was ignored again.

He shared his story with the U.S. Congress. In turn, Congress directed the FAA to conduct a proper investigation.

Instead, the FAA focused on helping Boeing recertify the airplane. In response, Ed conducted his own investigation and linked factory conditions to both crashes. He is determined to shine a light on the truth to help avoid future tragedies.

(Edit: Forgot to mention that I broke Pierson's text wall into paragraphs to make it easier to read.)

source: https://www.edpierson.com/

So I'm seeing a few comments deriding "safety culture", as in "vAlUiNg LiFe iSn'T a CuLtUrE" and "tHeY ShOuLd dO ThAt AnYwAy"

But, see, in this country (and many others), production and getting it done tends to trump everything else. I personally know roofing laborers, laborers, who would rather fall off of a roof than wear a fall protection harness. They don't get a bonus for finishing faster, they don't have to buy the safety gear. They just don't want safeguard themselves because a) it's a hassle, and b) "I've never needed it before".

Safety culture has to be developed in just about any enterprise. Labor and management both have to exert effort to develope and maintain a dominant attitude of life safety. And that dominant attitude is what people mean when they talk about "safety culture".

Yes, protecting life above profit should be the default setting. Should. But it isn't. Yes, management should bear the brunt of fault when safety culture is lost, yet there's still a measure of responsibility on labor to maintain a safety culture and push back against the siren call of getting the job done

Profits > people

This is precisely what happens when the business bros get in and take power away from the engineers and pilots.

And these are the type of people we're trusting on more than just airplanes. This report should hit the desk of NASA like an anvil. Artemis depends on it.

Respecting the law and avoiding hundreds of deaths by usage of your products is now considered part of a "culture"

"Safety culture..." as if this was some sort of ethnic group. Safety shouldn't be called a "culture" to Boeing, it should be called a top priority.

But then, of course, they couldn't blame their employees for not being team players.