exactly what I was thinking. Why would these whistleblowers lie? Their lives are not just figuratively on the line through things like being burned by a fairly niche, even if lucrative, industry. More importantly, with the level of money involved and the general unhinged state a lot of executives embody, the fact a previous whistle-blower 'killed themselves' the risk of coming forward is astronomical.
Ultimately, who am I going to trust? someone who does their job for the fact they really love what they do and possess at least a handful of positive human qualities like passion, thirst for knowledge and a desire to improve the world - OR - do I trust some coke fueled over-paid nepobaby?
I have some transatlantics scheduled in mid-may on 787s, and a friend of mine keeps forwarding me news about the speculation/whistleblowing about the 787. At first I just considered it confirmation bias with all the news there's been about Boeing lately--like train derailments became popular about a year ago, even though the background rate didn't change at all.
But this seems significant in a way that it hasn't felt previously, and it's starting to make me anxious; at what point does it become reasonable to begin altering plans?
> "These claims about the structural integrity of the 787 are inaccurate and do not represent the comprehensive work Boeing has done to ensure the quality and long-term safety of the aircraft," Boeing spokeswoman Jessica Kowal said in a statement. "We are fully confident in the 787 Dreamliner."
If Boeing is lying, that means they're willing to put even more lives at risk. There'd be no hope of them improving, ever again.
Unfortunately, it really seems like they are given their current track record.
Even if they knew it was true they would never admit it due to legal risk. They would instead say something like "we continuously improve the safety and quality of our products". And yes, they are 100% willing to put lives at risk, they've shown this already.
