With An Embattled Reputation And Increased Lawsuits, Boeing Allegedly Employs a Few Tactics From The CIA Mafia

Between the Royal Family and all that is going on there with Kate Middleton and her Photoshop Saga and Boeing and all the hits to their manufacturing reputation, from exploding door plugs to a tyre flying off their airplane during takeoff both the British and American institutions are facing the consequences of their own actions.

It used to be “If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going” in a popular television ad and company slogan to show the public trust for Boeing it was known for hiring the smartest aerospace engineers in the industry. However, shareholder greed, and an incessant desire to cut corners and operate on barebones expenses and budget, to artificially drive up profits, they end up cutting important things such as maintenance checks, laying off maintenance crew, contracting and subcontracting quality control staff and spinning off and selling Spirit AeroSystems, have caused a short term rise in quarterly returns for the company but in the long term has marred their reputation with scandals and devastated the leadership team and also the regulators that were meant to regulate them in lawsuits.

The duopoly in the industry, between Boeing and Airbus has made this particularly frightening for the everyday user. When the news broke about the door plug of the Alaskan Air Boeing plane blasting off mid-flight in January, it’s been a whirlwind of problems that even I am struggling to keep up with. Just two days ago an Air Alaskan flight arrived at Portland International Airport with the cargo door open, a fault from the manufacturer, at the same time a United Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing in California after a tyre fell off during takeoff, damaging not only the several cars and the structure of the parking lot of the San Francisco Airport, but further damaging the company’s already battered reputation. They also have a looming $1Bn class action lawsuit headed their way.

You would think the worst is behind them, however, just yesterday, it got eerily worse for the company. A former Boeing employee known for raising concerns about the firm’s production standards has been found dead in the US. John Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years, until his retirement in 2017. It said the 62-year-old had died from a “self-inflicted” wound on 9 March and police were investigating. In the days before his death, he had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company. In 2019 Mr Barnett told the BBC that under-pressure workers had been deliberately fitting sub-standard parts to aircraft on the production line. He also said he had uncovered serious problems with oxygen systems, which could mean one in four breathing masks would not work in an emergency. He said soon after starting work in South Carolina he had become concerned that the push to get new aircraft built meant the assembly process was rushed and safety was compromised, something the company denied. He later told the BBC that workers had failed to follow procedures intended to track components through the factory, allowing defective components to go missing. Mr Barnett said he had alerted managers to his concerns, but no action had been taken.

Boeing denied his assertions. However, a 2017 review by the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), did uphold some of Mr Barnett’s concerns. It established that the location of at least 53 “non-conforming” parts in the factory was unknown and that they were considered lost. Boeing was ordered to take remedial action On the oxygen cylinders issue, the company said that in 2017 it had “identified some oxygen bottles received from the supplier that were not deploying properly”. But it denied that any of them were actually fitted on aircraft. After retiring, he embarked on a long-running legal action against the company. He accused it of denigrating his character and hampering his career because of the issues he pointed out — charges rejected by Boeing. At the time of his death, Mr Barnett had been in Charleston for legal interviews linked to that case. He had been due to undergo further questioning on Saturday. When he did not appear, enquiries were made at his hotel. He was subsequently found dead in his truck in the hotel car park. The police are investigating the case now to see if there is any foul play but Mr Barnett’s death seems eerily convenient for Boeing.