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People & Power - On a wing and a prayer

Al Jazeera English · 89.6K views · 2010-12-15 · 52:28

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Overview

An Al Jazeera English People & Power investigation from 2010 into safety problems with the Boeing 737NG, featuring whistleblowers on cracking parts, hand-made structural components and an alleged cover-up.

On Hacker News

HN resurfaces it during Boeing safety stories as early, firsthand evidence that production and management problems long predate the 737 Max.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2019–2024

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What people said

bolangi · 2021-03 · Strong recommendation

Here are gruesome, firsthand details about production and management problems with the 737NG in a documentary from Al Jazeera. [VIDEO] The following summary is my own: The whole story is shown in the first seconds: three aircraft encountering more force than a usual landing (such as a runway overrun). All three fuselages breaking into three parts in exactly the same two places! All three aircraft exactly eight years old. Aluminum members called chords run the length of the fuselage and around the circumference to make up the fuselage structure. The chords are joined to each other and to reinforcing surrounds for large openings like doors. Poorly fitting chords and bear plates around openings were redrilled when mounting holes were misplaced, reshaped and pounded with hammers in order to mate them. This weakened of the structure to below design margins. In addition excessive metal fatigue due to hand processing led to accelerated corrosion, likely causing structural failure in three eight-year-old NG aircraft that broke up on landing. The aircraft were engineered to survive an emergency landing intact and were designed for 30-year airframe life. More to the story as the government colluded with Boeing to cover these deficiencies and frustrate the actions (eventually lawsuits) by a team of whistleblowers. Basically, the subcontractor agreed to use computer controlled manufacturing processes, then did 90% of the work by hand. The resulting substandard parts were beaten into shap

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mynameisnoone · 2024-01 · Recommendation

Link? Also, the rot didn't start with the 737 MAX. The 737 NG has critical problems that went unaddressed that has contributed to multiple fatalities and equipment damage. Here's a documentary about it: People & Power - On a wing and a prayer (2010) Al Jazeera [VIDEO] [LINK]

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mynameisnoone · 2024-01 · Recommendation

You're talking out of your ass. Watch this documentary about whistleblower complaints as far back as the 737 NG line as they observed workers beating structural parts into place with hammers. Clearly, things haven't improved since then. [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Al Jazeera English, played through YouTube.

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