'Designed by clowns': Boeing employees ridicule 737 MAX,
regulators in internal messages
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[January 10, 2020] By
David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co has
released hundreds of internal messages that contained harshly critical
comments about the development of the 737 MAX, including one that said
the plane was "designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by
monkeys".
The messages, disclosed on Thursday, show attempts to duck regulatory
scrutiny with employees disparaging the plane, the company, the Federal
Aviation Administration and foreign aviation regulators.
In an instant messaging exchange on Feb. 8, 2018 - when the plane was in
the air and eight months before the first of two fatal crashes, an
employee asks another: "Would you put your family on a MAX simulator
trained aircraft? I wouldn't".
The second employee responds: "No".
The 737 MAX has been grounded since March after an Ethiopian Airlines
flight nose-dived, just five months after similar Lion Air crash. The
two disasters killed 346.
In particular, some of the communications reveal efforts by Boeing to
avoid making pilot simulator training - an expensive and time-consuming
process - a requirement for the 737 MAX.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Jan/10/images/ads/current/atlantabank_lda_LUAL_2019.png)
The plane maker just this week changed tack, saying it would recommend
pilots do simulator training before they resume flying the 737 MAX - a
major shift from its longheld position that computer-based training was
sufficient as the plane was similar to its predecessor, the 737 NG.
The release of the messages, which highlight an aggressive cost-cutting
culture and disrespect towards the FAA, is set to deepen the crisis at
Boeing which is struggling to get its best-selling plane back in the air
and restore public confidence.
The FAA said, however, that the messages do not raise new safety
concerns although "the tone and content of some of the language
contained in the documents is disappointing".
Boeing said the communications "do not reflect the company we are and
need to be, and they are completely unacceptable".
For a factbox on excerpts from employees' messages, click on https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-737max-factbox/factbox-in-boeing-internal-messages-employees-distrust-the-737-max-and-mock-regulators-idUSKBN1Z90NP
PEARLY GATES CLOSED
The disclosure, which Boeing said was in the interest of transparency
with the FAA, prompted renewed outrage from U.S. lawmakers and puts more
pressure on Boeing's new CEO David Calhoun to overhaul the company's
culture when he takes the reins on Monday.
House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, who has been
investigating the MAX, said the messages "paint a deeply disturbing
picture of the lengths Boeing was apparently willing to go to in order
to evade scrutiny from regulators, flight crews, and the flying public,
even as its own employees were sounding alarms internally."
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![](../images/011020pics/busine23.jpg)
An employee works near a Boeing 737 Max aircraft at Boeing's 737 Max
production facility in Renton, Washington, U.S. December 16, 2019.
REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Jan/10/images/ads/current/d&d_lda_CHRISTMAS_2019.png)
Senator Roger Wicker, who chairs the commerce committee leading the
senate's probe into Boeing, also said the latest documents "raise
questions about the efficacy of FAA's oversight of the certification
process."
The U.S. Justice Department has an active criminal investigation
underway into matters related to the 737 MAX plane.
Some of the messages pointed to problems with the simulators. Boeing
said on Thursday it is confident "all of Boeing's MAX simulators are
functioning effectively" after repeated testing since the messages were
written.
The messages, however, show Boeing in the past was doing all it could to
lobby aviation regulators to avoid the need for airlines to train pilots
in a simulator on the differences between the 737 MAX and the 737 NG.
"I want to stress the importance of holding firm that there will not be
any type of simulator training required to transition from NG to MAX,"
Boeing's 737 chief technical pilot said in a March 2017 email.
"Boeing will not allow that to happen. We'll go face to face with any
regulator who tries to make that a requirement."
Before the grounding, pilot training on the differences consisted of a
one-hour lesson on an iPad and no time in the simulator, according to
the union representing pilots at American Airlines.
Shukor Yusof, the head of Malaysia-based aviation consultancy Endau
Analytics, said Boeing should get credit for disclosing the "destructive
diatribes".
"Initially the flying public will understandably have reservations but
the aircraft - having been completely and responsibly resurrected - will
likely be one of the safest planes around," he said.
In other emails and instant messages, employees spoke of their
frustration with the company's culture, complaining about the drive to
find the cheapest suppliers and "impossible schedules".
"I don't know how to fix these things...it's systemic. It's culture.
It's the fact we have a senior leadership team that understand very
little about the business and yet are driving us to certain objectives,"
said an employee in an email dated June 2018.
And in a May 2018 message, an unnamed Boeing employee said: "I still
haven't been forgiven by god for the covering up I did last year."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Jan/10/images/ads/current/charrons_bch041713.png)
Without referencing what was covered up, the employee added: "Cant do it
one more time. the Pearly gates will be closed..."
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Jamie Freed in
Sydney, Tim Hepher in Paris, Chris Sanders in Washington and Tracy
Rucinski in Chicago; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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