Hacker News Reader

Comment by throwaway458864 | Hacker News Reader

A public hearing isn't going to change anything. Look at...well, literally any powerful organization or individual brought before Congress for excoriation. The pound of flesh they want is press and votes, and you don't have to change anything to get that.

It's not like they're going to break up Boeing. They can't actually do anything to improve Boeing. All they can do is wag their finger. It's not like there's an alternative American company to give our billions of dollars to. And it's not like other companies will suddenly fear being brought forward to be gummed to death by whining bureaucrats.

You want real pain? Have them pass a law that says the entire executive leadership's bonuses are forfeit, retroactively, if the company fails to maintain an adequate safety record. Shit will change there real quick. (That law will never happen but it's funny to think of)

View on HN

I think culture is underrated. Acting like he did should not be considered a dignified behavior and I think that will meaningfully constrict behavior even in the absence of new laws. Think about how business culture varies across jurisdictions: there's more than just profit-maximization at work.

Also, to be clear, Boeing's safety record is still good. The only recent deaths are associated with less-trained pilots in the earlier days of the 737 MAX. My frustration is they took this organization from an engineering leader to an organization that can't ship a plane. The 787, 737 MAX, and now 777X were/are insanely delayed.

The nightmare scenario of a US-China war and Boeing being unable to ship a plane honestly haunts me. Boeing is extremely important to the West, broadly defined and this jerk didn't uphold his commensurate responsibilities.

> Also, to be clear, Boeing's safety record is still good.

Two complete losses within a few months is a fucking terrible safety record. The carnage only stopped when regulators forcibly grounded all 737 Max globally, while Boeing criminally denied any issues with the airplane design.

> The only recent deaths are associated with less-trained pilots in the earlier days of the 737 MAX.

The recent deaths are associated with criminal management at Boeing. It was not a pilot training issue. Boeing intentionally and criminally withheld information about the MCAS system from all pilots, airlines, and regulators. Literally no one had a clue about MCAS outside of Boeing. Furthermore, the MCAS design was fundamentally broken, falling below minimum aircraft engineering standards.

> My frustration is they took this organization from an engineering leader to an organization that can't ship a plane. The 787, 737 MAX, and now 777X were/are insanely delayed.

Cutting corners and trying to ship planes quickly is partly what got them into this mess.

> Boeing's safety record is still good. The only recent deaths are associated with less-trained pilots in the earlier days of the 737 MAX.

This argument makes no sense. A repeatedly faulty plane that has crashed multiple times does not have a "good" safety record just because recoving from that fault is part of pilot training. In fact that's the definition of what I'd call a bad safety record.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com