Another 737 catches fire

[made in china]

Everybody says the Boeing engineer who died was not depressed when he died.

So he gave all his evidence to Boeing in his deposition just 2 days before. But died before he could give that testimony and evidence in the courtroom.

Inside Boeing whistleblower final moments — with John Barnett not seeming ‘depressed’ on night before alleged suicide: sources

Lawyers, family friends and witnesses all say the 62-year-old was upbeat about finishing off giving testimony against his former employer in Charleston, South Carolina, and raised suspicious as to …

nypost.com

I'm sure Boeing filed it in the same place as the door plug records.....

 

[ilikegunspdx]

Sounds like flight attendant jammed the pilot into the yoke by pushing his seat switch. It woudl be a fluke but if they had a cart serving dinner it would have to flip up the switch flap then depress the rocker switch to the right. I could see that happening with a cart shoved into narrow space. How else it could happen I have no clue.

Now I wonder about the report of pilot saying controls went blank. I assume he was lying to cover for the stewardess? That one is weird.

Boeing tells pilots to check seats after Latam plane incident

It comes during an ongoing investigation into how a Latam flight suddenly dropped injuring 50 people.

www.bbc.com

 

[gmerkt]

Never mind fault for a moment. The question should be, has airline transportation gotten more dangerous? A look at numbers might tell us something. I know that numbers of flights has increased hugely in the past 20 years, up until the Covid event, which was an anomaly. Since then, air transportation has mostly bounced back in the US, and US-Europe flights. Trans Pacific flights are still off some.

The point being, the number of mishaps is likely statistically related to number of flights. I haven't done the research to know if this data might bear out an actual increase in mishaps.

Maybe a bigger issue is hyper publicity about anything negative. Which drives the news cycle. Thanks to our cyber age and addiction to cable news. Airplane mishaps have been going on for a very long time.

 

[gmerkt]

Partially crushed small car and a Tesla

The Tesla will not be missed.

 

[gmerkt]

Everybody says the Boeing engineer who died was not depressed when he died.

So he gave all his evidence to Boeing in his deposition just 2 days before. But died before he could give that testimony and evidence in the courtroom.

I saw that in the newspaper yesterday. Which caused me to wonder if the Boeing Company hires hit men. Naw, that stuff only happens on "Law and Order." That would never happen in real life.

 

[gmerkt]

The above discussion does not address mismanagement by the aircrew or other causes, but those almost always involve things like lack of fuel.

This here. I was thinking, if there is any finger pointing to be done, it should start with the airlines themselves. Which have gotten very greedy and grasping in recent years, trying to squeeze as much juice out of the lemon as possible. Ever escalating fees for baggage, decreasing pax. space in seating, charging for seat choice, etc., etc. surely if they do these things, they might be tempted to cut corners in mechanical maintenance.

I should add, none of which likely connects with oddball events like the hatch blow-out.

 

[Provincial]

Now it is looking like the "loss of control" was the controls being bumped while the flight crew was being fed. The pilot might have been trying to deflect blame by reporting the screens blacking out and controls not responding.

If this is the case, I see a change in procedure for flight deck crew taking meal breaks.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

Another piece of a 737 comes off mid flight today. Time to check your yards again for airplane parts if you are near Medford Oregon.

If I were to guess I would say we are going to have a Boeing crash soon. Obviously they are slapping these things together and maintenance is sorely lacking too. United has had 6 incidents now in about 1 week. Roll the dice, fly United.

Boeing 737 loses external panel mid-flight, lands safely in Oregon in latest plane incident

A Boeing 737-800 lost an external panel mid-flight Friday — the latest issue involving one of the manufacturer’s planes that was only discovered when it landed at an Oregon airport, acc…

nypost.com

Here's a video from 3 weeks ago of the wing disintegrating during flight on a 757. It's that same honeycomb material as the one shown torn today. Maybe they are making them out of balsa wood.

View: https://youtu.be/x13ifQNIP_w?si=ufSe9MjJqCjzu2lS

 

[Alexx1401]

At least this time is was a plane 25 years old. Sounds like Boeing had nothing to do with this one but of course the news leaves that part out of the story till well into the thing. There has been a definite attack on Boeing going on. Not that they are helping things but, again this was poor maintenance but they promptly blame Boeing . Sounds like some other maker must be doing some heavy donation's to the right people.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

At least this time is was a plane 25 years old. Sounds like Boeing had nothing to do with this one but of course the news leaves that part out of the story till well into the thing. There has been a definite attack on Boeing going on. Not that they are helping things but, again this was poor maintenance but they promptly blame Boeing . Sounds like some other maker must be doing some heavy donation's to the right people.

4 of the major incidents in the last week or so involve planes from San Francisco airport. That has to be nearly statistically impossible I would think. Don't recall if they were all United planes but I think so. One has to wonder about complete idiots doing maintenance on United planes in San Fran. Has to be that or worst case sabotage (which seems far-fetched at this point). Something is going on though with United maintenance and specifically San Fran airport imo. Could be drugs. Who knows but they better fix that shot or planes are going to be falling from the sky instead of just wheels and parts.

Edit: just noticed that video from 3 weeks ago of wing disintegrating on a 757 is also from United leaving San Francisco. That's crazy! That's 5 (at least) recently from San Fran.

 

[CamoDeafie]

Boeing has one major competitor, Airbus. Boeing used to compete against McDonnel Douglas until they merged (there's a lot of drama there), and then there's Lockheed which mainly does cargo planes.

 

[Alexx1401]

4 of the major incidents in the last week or so involve planes from San Francisco airport. That has to be nearly statistically impossible I would think. Don't recall if they were all United planes but I think so. One has to wonder about complete idiots doing maintenance on United planes in San Fran. Has to be that or worst case sabotage (which seems far-fetched at this point). Something is going on though with United maintenance and specifically San Fran airport imo. Could be drugs. Who knows but they better fix that shot or planes are going to be falling from the sky instead of just wheels and parts.

Edit: just noticed that video from 3 weeks ago of wing disintegrating on a 757 is also from United leaving San Francisco. That's crazy! That's 5 (at least) recently from San Fran.

DEI Hiring?

 

[WEE]

Another piece of a 737 comes off mid flight today. Time to check your yards again for airplane parts if you are near Medford Oregon.

If I were to guess I would say we are going to have a Boeing crash soon. Obviously they are slapping these things together and maintenance is sorely lacking too. United has had 6 incidents now in about 1 week. Roll the dice, fly United.

Boeing 737 loses external panel mid-flight, lands safely in Oregon in latest plane incident

A Boeing 737-800 lost an external panel mid-flight Friday — the latest issue involving one of the manufacturer’s planes that was only discovered when it landed at an Oregon airport, acc…

nypost.com

View attachment 1844155
Here's a video from 3 weeks ago of the wing disintegrating during flight on a 757. It's that same honeycomb material as the one shown torn today. Maybe they are making them out of balsa wood.

View: https://youtu.be/x13ifQNIP_w?si=ufSe9MjJqCjzu2lS

That panel is called a leading edge slat. As such, it is not part of the wing per se and serves a similar function as the trailing edge flaps. The slats and flaps are actuated on takeoff and landing; effectively giving the wing more surface area, and thus lift, at low speeds. This is definitely a UA maintenance issue as these slats and flaps have a routine maintenance inspection schedule. United has one of the largest and oldest fleets in the US. The average age of UA's 757 is 27 years.

 

[Alexx1401]

Boeing has one major competitor, Airbus. Boeing used to compete against McDonnel Douglas until they merged (there's a lot of drama there), and then there's Lockheed which mainly does cargo planes.

So far but:

China's first homegrown airliner makes global debut

STORY: China's challenger to Airbus and Boeing's passenger jets made its first trip outside Chinese territory on Sunday as it staged a fly-by at the Singapore Airshow.The narrow-body C919 is made by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or COMAC. It was one of two commercial planes...

finance.yahoo.com

 

[Provincial]

That panel is called a leading edge slat. As such, it is not part of the wing per se and serves a similar function as the trailing edge flaps. The slats and flaps are actuated on takeoff and landing; effectively giving the wing more surface area, and thus lift, at low speeds. This is definitely a UA maintenance issue as these slats and flaps have a routine maintenance inspection schedule. United has one of the largest and oldest fleets in the US. The average age of UA's 757 is 27 years.

Looking at the photo of the damaged leading edge slat, I notice dents in the wing surface just about where the damaged part of the slat would rest when retracted. A bird strike in that area would cause damage just like what is shown in the photo. The slat would fracture and the aluminum wing skin dent from the impact.

If the airplane took off with that damage, it would be worrisome, but if the bird strike occurred during that flight, it is unlikely that the crew would have notice about it, unless a passenger or Flight Attendant noticed it from the cabin window.

 

[WEE]

So far but:

China's first homegrown airliner makes global debut

STORY: China's challenger to Airbus and Boeing's passenger jets made its first trip outside Chinese territory on Sunday as it staged a fly-by at the Singapore Airshow.The narrow-body C919 is made by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or COMAC. It was one of two commercial planes...

finance.yahoo.com

The C919 has been in work for about 20 years, as I remember it. When I was in Boeing Marketing, we even had discussions with the Chinese about a partnership. We never saw it as a competitive threat outside of China. Embraer makes an excellent family of single aisle airplanes. But Boeing and Airbus have huge back orders in the single aisle market, going out several years. Boeing is planning 737 production rates of 60 per month.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

Video of seat moving on its own just by pressing on the cover. He says he doesn't know if this is the same airplane that smashed the pilot into the yoke causing all the injuries. This 787 must have been made in that South Carolina plant where the workers have been reported to be drugged out of their minds. Same plant the guy who died was in the process of blowing the whistle on. Maybe they don't want to do drug testing cuz that will lose workers and slow down the assembly line.

View: https://youtu.be/cRF1YTVJ1Q4?si=Dadyz_Ka0Azb3fw-

 

[Alexx1401]

The C919 has been in work for about 20 years, as I remember it. When I was in Boeing Marketing, we even had discussions with the Chinese about a partnership. We never saw it as a competitive threat outside of China. Embraer makes an excellent family of single aisle airplanes. But Boeing and Airbus have huge back orders in the single aisle market, going out several years. Boeing is planning 737 production rates of 60 per month.

FAR from any kind of expert at any of this but, are those orders under contract? As in they can't be canceled? If so great. If not? As in someone else comes along and says "here's a great plane you can buy"? Someone is really making a point of going after Boeing and there has to be a reason they are doing this.

 

[WEE]

FAR from any kind of expert at any of this but, are those orders under contract? As in they can't be canceled? If so great. If not? As in someone else comes along and says "here's a great plane you can buy"? Someone is really making a point of going after Boeing and there has to be a reason they are doing this.

Those orders are really just locking-in delivery positions, secured by a deposit (down payment). The closer the positions get to being built, a prepayment schedule comes into play. Since the positions are often years out, economic or operational conditions may change for that airline. Then the positions can be re-negotiated or even cancelled.

 

[gmerkt]

Engine failures happen. The structure is designed to allow an engine to fail without damaging the rest of the airplane. This is one reason the engines are not embedded in the structure of the wings or fuselage on modern designs.

This design feature didn't work for the Russian IL-76 that crashed earlier this year. But maybe Russian aerospace engineering is different. The Russian Defense Ministry said an engine caught fire on takeoff, which is always a critical moment in aviation.