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March 15, 2019 - Steve Pieczenik
04:30
OPUS 131 Boeing Epic Failure
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Hi, I'm Dr.
Pachenik and I want to discuss today the two unfortunate airplane accidents that occurred.
One, five months ago with Lion Air, Indonesian Air and a Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed after takeoff and then recently Ethiopian Airlines Also crashed after takeoff.
Both had similar patterns of software malfunction.
And it seemed like a thing called the MACS, the multiplier and the software and the training of pilots was an issue.
The real issue, unfortunately, is what Donald Trump said.
The president said that what you need is an MIT engineer to run one of these computer planes.
And that's really what the issue is at hand.
Boeing did not step up to the plate.
Unfortunately, I think they made a very big mistake when they kept silent and reassured everyone that there was no problem.
There is a serious problem.
Boeing is a $200 billion corporation.
It has over 153,000 employees and it's located all over the world.
It supplies the 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 To 5,000 different airplanes all over 30 different countries.
In short, Boeing's major competitor is Airbus from Toulouse, France.
I saw Airbus grow and I saw the dynamics of the competition between Airbus and Boeing.
Let me get back to Boeing.
Boeing, run by Mullinger, unfortunately made a very big mistake when they didn't come forward and said, you know what, we should have grounded these planes.
Instead, Donald Trump overrode his FAA, which by the way is a problem.
And let me explain why that's a problem.
The FAA is really populated by employees from Boeing, exactly 1,000 employees from Boeing, Go to the FAA, they get some type of training which is superficial, and then they monitor their own company's compliance.
That's like putting the fox in the hen house.
That's absurd.
And Trump said that.
For the President of the United States to say, listen, we're going to ground the Boeings.
When his secretary of defense, the acting secretary of defense, Shanahan, who's a brilliant ex-Boeing executive, trained at MIT, both as a master's in science and MBA, he knew very well that there was a problem.
So did Shanahan, because Shanahan was Mr.
Fix-It, and he knew that 787 was a problem, and he corrected that.
Nevertheless, we have a very good acting secretary of defense, and he should be the permanent secretary of defense.
The point being that Boeing It has to come back to a realization that created a major fiscal, financial, and psychological problem.
The fiscal problem on a $150 billion company is going to be probably $1 to $10 billion in terms of lawsuits.
The greater issue will be how do you reassure the public that these planes, which are basically run by software, in short, I don't need a pilot.
I don't need that handsome man or that attractive woman pilot to say to you, we're going to do fine and we wish you a good trip.
That's absurd because now we know it's a software analog which really runs the airplane.
Now, I've got to tell you, I've flown hundreds of thousands of miles all over the world with the worst airlines you could imagine.
I'm not going to say which ones they are.
But at present, I have a certain fear of flying.
And the answer for that is very simple.
I'm a realist.
And if I know that the machine work can be faulty or can be complicated, like the software in a new Boeing, and in fact, I can't trust Boeing to reassure me that this plane is going to be able to fly, then I have An initial fear of flying, which is quite normal.
It's normal for me because I've flown all over the world, but at the same time, I'm going to quote Linda McCartney, Paul McCartney's wife, who said, My mother died accidentally in an airplane crash.
I fear flying and therefore I'm going to stay home and go nowhere.
Then Eddie Murphy, the comic, said, if you don't die in an airplane, America's a great country in which you can develop your talent.
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