The headline is bad enough, however, read what Boeing is reported to have said internally, it is beyond bad taste and manners. If correct, then shame on Boeing, doubly so for the offensive followup that was made. Not only didn't Boeing mention what they had done on the systems, they demeaned an operator that was attempting to get comfortable with the differences, in order to save their program from some questions that could cost them.
I'm not sure that is defensible in any manner, and I would think that airline acquisition departments would question how they can trust such a supplier.
Boeing, you need to clean up your act. And not the lip gloss that has passed for response to the prior ethical antics.
Or don't, and see how the market takes the latest revelations.
I am physically nauseas after reading the comments reportedly made by the manufacturer. I think I'll just go and throw up.
Boeing, you have lost me, and I have been a fan for 40 years flying your equipment.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ng-thwarted-it
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“Now friggin Lion Air might need a sim to fly the MAX, and maybe because of their own stupidity. I’m scrambling trying to figure out how to unscrew this now! idiots,” one Boeing employee wrote in June 2017 text messages obtained by the company and released by the House committee.
In response, a Boeing colleague replied: “WHAT THE F%$&!!!! But their sister airline is already flying it!” That was an apparent reference to
Malindo Air, the Malaysian-based carrier that was the first to fly the Max commercially.
Doing simulator training would have undercut a critical selling point of the jet: that airlines would be able to allow crews trained on an older 737 version to fly the Max after just a brief computer course.
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The communications include a 2017 email from Boeing’s chief technical pilot on the 737 in which he crowed to colleagues: “Looks like my jedi mind trick worked again!” The email was sent two days after the earlier messages expressing alarm about Lion Air potentially demanding simulator training.
Attached was a forwarded email exchange in which the person warned an unnamed recipient against offering simulator training for Max pilots, pushing instead for the computer-based course that regulators had already approved for flight crews transitioning to the Max from earlier 737 models.
“I am concerned that if [redacted] chooses to require a Max simulator for its pilots beyond what all other regulators are requiring that it will be creating a difficult and unnecessary training burden for your airline, as well as potentially establish a precedent in your region for other Max customers,” the Boeing pilot wrote in the forwarded message.
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