Originally Posted by
Loose rivets
meleagertoo's post stood out for me because I was becoming very uneasy about the universal and almost undivided criticism. I'd even thought of writing a post called The Inertia of Indignation. But perhaps this will do. I think the problem with his post is that it's such a violent swing onto a reciprocal heading. Folk are not ready for it; not willing to give too much thought to the reality of the real human nature found in big corporations - indeed, in all walks of life. While I accept there has to be huge changes in the structure of Boeing, nothing I'm reading surprises me that much. On a small scale, I've seen it before: bewildering, cruel, callus behaviour meted out by people that should never have attained their management positions. I have been left winded by cowards and downright liars. People I'd looked up to but that clearly had no souls.
I've been pretty critical of Boeing from the onset and sometimes it's weighed on my conscience, given the millions the brand has carried. What are we really seeing when we lift the lid of this particular company? Well, bullying and resultant fear, for a start. Everyone knows that innovative design and skilled workmanship can't be carried out under threat, and it's an industry that can't blithely put failures right, but now the revelations astonish the unaware reader.
When I got old I started to look at my passengers walking out. Ordinary folk, but then a mother, carrying a child. Those little shoes, almost the same shoes I'd put out for children and then grandchildren. They looked the same, the same as the ones so often focused in on at crash sites. It's perhaps time to walk away when you start to think like that. Perhaps a case-hardening is needed to do the job, flying or crafting. But callous disregard for the reality of their responsibility? Is that what they're doing, shutting their minds to the real-world? Surely they can't rush code, or hammer parts in, if they really care about people?
It's a special industry because it can kill so quickly, but the horrific truth is there are several huge corporations that seem to shut their minds to their particular kind of carnage. The toll is vast compared to aviation deaths and remains unchecked. The $-power is unassailable. The callous disregard on a whole new scale.
But back to the absurd communications. I wonder how many times I've heard management and senior pilots blasting forth after a few drinks. A lot of the often loud protests were banal, embarrassing and often threatening. Yet, I'd perhaps flown with them for the entire day, and they'd been nothing short of professional. Strange what that evening drink can do, especially when you're venting and think no one will ever see your words.
Can we expect people in aviation to set a whole new standard? Well yes, we can expect until the cows come home but it won't make a jot of difference. Human nature will out, and there is probably nothing we can do about it. To build a perfect corporation that can produce something at the cutting edge of man's ability and then sell it into a world-wide market against powerful competition is simply not possible. Even with US government funding and the science of NASA, things still went disastrously wrong.
This time it was the bizarre coincidence of two disparate faults that exposed the fallibility of the single sensor, but that's 'all' it was. Hard to say the word, but that's all it was. But it opened the can. What is so hard to visualise is just how different the lives of thousands would be if two small components hadn't failed. Is it possible that an airliner can be produced that could self correct issues and always fail safe? I think we could possibly get close to that in twenty years, but not while the free world model of competition is allowed to eat at the moral fabric of corporations. The two just don't go together. Aviation a special case? It won't happen. You don't have to search long for far greater disregard for human life, and that's getting worse by the patent.
Wholheartedly agree, except for one little detail: It's not the competition which eats the moral fabric of corporations, it's a false foundation of business purpose and goals which leads to squeezing the last cent and trading the future for short and medium term benefits. Competition may in fact mitigate the outcome but there is no "healthy" competition. Neither with the manufacturers nor with the airlines.
Originally Posted by
Icarus2001
You don't think that is overstating things just a little? Which laws (plural) did they break?
Here is a FACT, that is just an assertion, an opinon of yours.
In my opinion MOST passengers have no idea what type of aircraft they are expecting to board when they buy a ticket. Even when shown on the booking.
Civil, accounting, criminal laws ... we shall see, there is still a lot to come, we are still in discovery phase.
They might not, but the DO know B vs A which is bad enough. Chances of B remaining a prime example of corporate ethics failure like Monsanto or Dow chemical are high.