
Boeing doing 500 test flights to rebuild trust - linsomniac
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/05/boeing-conducts-500-test-flights-of-troubled-737-max-to-restore-trust.html
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ratsmack
I'm sure it would have been a lot more cost effective to have done due
diligence _before_ the catastrophic failures that cost the lives of so many.

I worked in the aircraft industry for 45 years and know Boeing well. With the
Boeing culture up to the mid 90's, this would have never happened. But from
the mid 90's to present, Boeing changed from an engineering company to a
company run by accountants and analysts.

~~~
ksaj
Hindsight is 20-million. As someone who works in infosec, I see way too many
events that only occurred because of the lack of due diligence - or common
sense, for that matter.

Once upon a time, all major companies had "Disaster Recovery" plans (DRP).
Those got replaced by Business Continuity/Resumption Plans (BCP) which is a
nicer term for the same thing, but boiled down to expensive word naggling that
forced you to rewrite the entire _working_ framework from scratch because of
new paradigms (a word we all learned to hate).

Nowadays, almost none of my customers have anything even similar to a BCP or
DRP, and they think I'm trying to "strike it rich" by suggesting it to them.
And the ones who have minimal versions never test them. I'm always available
(by the hour of course) when disaster does strike, I guess.

------
osivertsson
Here is the actual interview referenced:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRLbWGpLaBc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRLbWGpLaBc)

~~~
osivertsson
Having worked briefly with software in the aircraft industry I'm terrified at
what the Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg says.

1\. Still not taking responsibility. Dennis: "deep sympathies for the families
and loved ones that were affected by these two accidents". Affected?
Accidents? This was not _accidents_ but a deep systemic failure within Boeing.
People have not been _affected_ , hundreds of people are DEAD and even more
lives ruined by losing daughters/sons/parents/...

2\. Dennis: "Continue to focus on safety as a core value" which I interpret as
"We were very happy to take shortcuts regarding safety previously to reach
time and cost targets set by us in management, despite some of our most senior
technical staff complaining. We just kept pushing ahead until we found less
senior staff that would take on the tasks. The risk was so small and it was
the easy way forward. Now we have a hard time to uncover all the shortcuts we
have taken. It is hidden in small assumptions and missing analysis in our
documentation and our organization does not reward making them visible".

3\. Dennis: "Worked our way through the technical details of [the software
updates to the MAX] and are in the final stages of preparing that software".
Every time I hear words like "final stages..." regarding software projects
from management I know something is rotten. Most of the times I hear this a
project is in a state where something just has to work because time or money
is up, while the real solution can only be found by first taking a step
backwards, something that management will not allow.

4\. Dennis: "it is important that we just get the airplane back up and
flying". Speaks of a company culture that caused this problem to begin with...

~~~
ksaj
> safety as a core value

If it was a _core_ value, how might these events have unfolded differently?
Would it have happened _twice_? Would they have kept the details _secret_ from
the pilots? Would it have happened at all?

The "thoughts and prayers" feel-good wording used throughout is demonstrative
of legal and moral blame shifting, and shows a lack of ownership of the issues
that preempted any of this unfortunate result.

For them, this is just a stock market issue, and they'll be fine once everyone
forgets.

