this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
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Boeing reported another problem with fuselages on its 737 jets that might delay deliveries of about 50 aircraft in the latest quality gaff to plague the manufacturer.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal said in a letter to Boeing staff seen Monday that a worker at its supplier discovered misdrilled holes in fuselages. Spirit AeroSystems, based in Wichita, Kansas, makes a large part of the fuselages on Boeing Max jets.

"While this potential condition is not an immediate safety issue and all 737s can continue operating safely”

‘bUT iT’s sAFE’

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[–] Shadow@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 years ago

This is the same article that's been going around for a couple days now.

So far we've got the missing bolts that caused the door cover to be blown out, and now these incorrect holes. I don't think anything else.... yet.

[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I know they have contacts to respect, but out of safety, they should completely stop production and offer an alternative to honor their contracts.

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What's crazy is this is after the many news articles over the past few months, and their commitment to safety.

Which means... Either they are doing a lot of changes and things creep through, or they've been lying.

[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Being in IT, the only analogy I can make is that when a software design is crappy, it doesn't matter how many bug fixes or vulnerability patches you add, it's still going not going to work properly.

You have to go back to the drawing board and apply good, proven design guidelines and restart from there.

[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Lotus notes

[–] Copernican@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What exactly is the relationship between spirit aero systems and Boeing? Who owns which responsibilities between these types of fuck ups? Is it Boeing design? Spirit manufacturing? Boeing inspection? The buck stops with Boeing, but since they deliver the final product, but wtf is going on at Spirit.

[–] Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago (2 children)

So this is great the answer is nobody really knows. Spirit aerosystems used to be part of Boeing it was a Boeing manufacturing plant owned and run by Boeing full of Boeing employees. Then the c-suite got the brilliant idea of selling off a good chunk for their business. So that they could then contract with the new company to do the exact same work that was happening at the plant before it was spun off. Yeah crazy isn't it. My understanding is it looks good on the books in the short term plus it might have been to get rid of some labor and pension obligations. The union workforce was let go and had to apply to be rehired with the sale of the division. They ended up taking a 10% pay cut.

Anyway at the moment this is letting Boeing and spirit both point fingers at each other. Additionally it is slowing down any kind of engineering fix because there are separate engineering teams working for separate companies working on the same problem. We saw the same thing with the misaligned holes on the rear pressure bulkhead that Spirit was making. Oh also Spirit now contracts some of its work out for Boeing to third parties making it more convoluted.

Spirit does do some aerospace work for other companies but roughly 85% of their income comes from Boeing.

[–] muffedtrims@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I used to work for a company that was Spirit's largest supplier. Spirit contracts a bunch of parts out to smaller manufacturing companies. We would manufacture parts, process them (paint and anodizing), then assemble them at all of our facilities, then they would get shipped to Wichita for further assembly by Spirit. The 737 MAX has been Boeing's fastest selling plane in recent history, so you can imagine the pressure on the manufacturing contractors to get their parts out the door. After seeing everything from the inside, I personally wouldn't fly on a 737 MAX. I would stick with Boeing's older models or choose an airline that has primarily an Airbus fleet.

Yeah I work in the airline industry and I am right there with you I won't fly the MAX planes . Hell I just heard an interview on the radio with a former high level engineer at Boeing. He straight up walked off a plane when he figured out it was a MAX.

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 years ago

The union workforce was let go and had to apply to be rehired with the sale of the division. They ended up taking a 10% pay cut.

Originally from the Seattle area. This was my assumption right here. About everything they've done in the last few decades has seemed to be around removing union labor.

[–] Determinator@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Look I'm all for the "Fuck Boeing" circlejerk but as someone who actually works QA at an aircraft manufacturer this is likely a whole lot of nothing.

I'd be shocked if you could find a single aircraft of any make in service that didn't have dozens of misdrilled holes.

Without any context this is just fear mongering.

[–] fastandcurious@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Fair enough, I think boeing has fucked up so much that even something benign is being taken seriously, which is good imho, but it is also kinda scary, what else did they get away with?

[–] Determinator@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Again, I understand the sentiment but this is not an example of them "getting away" with anything.

If anything this is indicative of a healthy Quality Management System given that this condition was identified and contained prior to any impacted articles entering into service.

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

Dealy Stan: Reeling in the Yeets

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It’s ironic that it’s 737 of them