Boeing 737 Max Aircraft - Would You Fly On One?

[Vercingetorix]

Omegafanman

178….. I am sure I read they had 177 passengers on board… so lucky it was an empty seat by the plug.

Or maybe Alaska knew something.

 

[Walrus]

I just assume I’m going to die every flight I have taken with my knowledge of gravity so yes, I would jump aboard. Trying to get my wife traveling via air first time since Covid I didn’t think of asking if she cared.

 

[140dave]

That Alaska aircraft had known problems and was not authorized for flight over open water.

Do you really think those seats really just happened to be unoccupied?


@Vercingetorix just beat me to it lol

 

[dsio]

I wouldn’t fly the max, this recent situation doesn’t concern me as much as the fact that a plane so critically dependent on software not only failed miserably to meet aerospace industry standards, but also fails to meet basic software engineering standards.

Using overseas contractors for development isn’t inherently bad, but it requires intensive supervision and you need to be hiring the best contractors and paying them proper money, when I had devs in India on previous projects they had salaries about on par with local Australian devs because we only hired the top 0.1% of talent.

The typical American company chasing profit in outsourcing doesn’t do that, they pay peanuts and as a result they get plebs whose work is no good. I have no doubt there are many other landmines sitting in the 737max software that just haven’t been found or caused an issue yet.

For longer flights my preference tends to be A350 > A380 > 777 > anything else, for domestic A320/737-800 is pretty much all we see and makes little difference which to me

 

[befobe]

Boeing 737 Max Aircraft - Would You Fly On One?
Yes, but only with a G-Shock 😁

 

[BlackTalon]

Info I read earlier today said a pressurization light had been coming on, and the mechanics did not see anything obvious so it was though the sensor might be bad. But 'just in case' the airline decided not to fly it over the ocean to Hawaii.

 

[Tayne]

Would that light come on if the door plug had been flexing a little and had broken its seal?

 

[fiberguy]

Trusting your life to contractors and suppliers that win a bid based on lowest cost….

 

[fiberguy]

Tayne

Would that light come on if the door plug had been flexing a little and had broken its seal?

There were warnings on previous flights, their solution was to limit the plane to fly only over land until they could check it out

 

[gbesq]

fiberguy

There were warnings on previous flights, their solution was to limit the plane to fly only over land until they could check it out

Brilliant. If the plane had been flying at cruising altitude, limiting its service to flying over land would have made it much easier to find all of the pieces after an explosive decompression.

 

[pdxleaf]

fiberguy

Trusting your life to contractors and suppliers that win a bid based on lowest cost….

It was good enough for Apollo 😁

 

[pdxleaf]

Vercingetorix

Or maybe Alaska knew something.

Now that is really dark.

 

[BlackTalon]

fiberguy

Trusting your life to contractors and suppliers that win a bid based on lowest cost….

You likely do this every time you get into a car, bus, truck, train, boat, etc. And whenever you put yourself in the path of one.

And whenever you walk into a building, step into an elevator, hold an electronic device up to your head, etc.

 

[RevZMan123]

Makesbelieve

But the world soon learned that the real problem had been corporate greed that had taken too many shortcuts while the regulators hadn’t managed to resist the onslaught.

This is what happens when the budget of the regulator is paid for in part by the regulated. (see FDA vs big pharma) You can't have true impartiality when millions are on the line in both directions.

 

[TimeODanaos]

😲 🤦

 

[abrod520]

Door plugs, rudder bolts and the like that are found before long sound more like new-aircraft teething problems to me. Just like the battery issues on the 78 that people lost their minds over.

My main issue and why I don't want to fly on a 737 MAX aircraft is the fact that it is an inherently unstable design due to the shoehorning of the new engines into slightly different configuration on the wing. This means is that it requires software and autopilot to maintain level flight. This is not unusual for fighter aircraft (Boeing's own F/A-18 for instance is an unstable design and has been flying just fine for over 30 years) but until now passenger aircraft have been designed such that they more or less naturally 'want' to fly straight and level if there are no control inputs.
I just don't think airline pilot training (even for Airbus types) has evolved to incorporate managing the software such as the MCAS well enough yet. I'd rather keep flying on jets that can be hand-flown in a pinch.

And despite their recent issues, I'm no Boeing hater. For long-haul flights I absolutely love the 78, it really does make a difference.

 

[river rat]

Anyone remember in the 1970’s when U.S. cars were made like crap and Japanese cars were made so good Americans started to findely buy them in the USA had a friend who worked for GM in that timeframe a lot of partying was going on you had someone stoned out of there mind putting cars together. Now half the 50 states pot is legal went into the mall in Bozeman the sales worker was stoned on pot out of his mind. Would not surprise me a worker stoned the night before did not do 100% due to the side effects of smoking pot due to it’s legal and did not tighten the bolts good enough so the patch door flew off the aircraft.

Edited: Jan 12, 2024

 

[josiahg52]

No problems flying on any of the MAX line. Then or now.

 

[Twocats]

BlackTalon

Info I read earlier today said a pressurization light had been coming on, and the mechanics did not see anything obvious so it was though the sensor might be bad. But 'just in case' the airline decided not to fly it over the ocean to Hawaii.

You are correct, the pressurization caution light had illuminated on three previous legs. The issue is the aircraft was not taken out of service for a thorough inspection of the system, they instead just withdrew it from ETOPS routes. You pull the aircraft into a hangar and pressurise it, then you use a product like Leak-TEC and spray it around the door seals. If it bubbles or fizzes you have found your leak. Even if you find the leak on the first door, inspect all others just incase. They should also check the pressurisation and dump valve, avionic cooling vents and basically anywhere it could be leaking from.

The problem here is, when the aircraft was pressurised it exerted a force on the door plug causing the leak but when the aircraft was unpressurised on the ground the door plug sat into its natural position so the flight deck and ground engineers would have missed it on the pre flight walk around inspection.

TopTip: if you ever hear a high pitched squealing while in flight from the door area, it's the door seal. It's not dangerous but it is loud. Take napkins and soak them in water, then tuck them around the door seal and the squealing will stop. We have one aircraft that squeels so bad we nicknamed it Stormy Daniels.

 

[Aroxx]

river rat

Now half the 50 states pot is legal went into the mall in Bozeman the sales worker was stoned on pot out of his mind.

Probably sold you some really good snacks though…