Free Republic

A new problem has been found during the production of 737 Max jets that will force Boeing to rework about 50 planes that have not yet been delivered. The problem was disclosed in a memo sent to Boeing (BA) employees Sunday by Stan Deal, the head of the company’s commercial aircraft unit. An employee at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which makes the fuselages of the 737 Max jets, notified the plane maker that two holes may not have been drilled exactly to Boeing’s requirements, according to Deal’s memo. “While this potential condition is not an immediate flight safety issue and...

Boeing's 737 Max 9 planes could be back in the air as soon as Friday despite serious safety concerns among airlines and passengers - with American Airlines' boss warning Thursday that the aircraft maker needs to 'get its act together'. The FFA approved an inspection and maintenance process that will allow the Max 9 aircrafts to return to service - but said it will not approve any requests from Boeing to expand production of its killer jets. All Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft were grounded following the harrowing Alaska Airlines blowout that forced an emergency landing when a door fell...

It's that time of year again: Our betters are in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum annual meeting, devising ways to tell us what to drive, eat, and cook with. All manner of bigwigs are in attendance, including our own Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. Unfortunately, Blinken's plans to return to the U.S. hit some turbulence: It seems the Boeing 737 he was set to take back to the homeland has sprung a leak. I'm not sure exactly what that's a metaphor for, but surely, it's something. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was unable to fly home from...

Blinken is currently stuck in Davos after a "critical aircraft error" with a modified Boeing 737

Claims of quality control issues at key Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems are mounting, following near-disaster on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX flight. Spirit, the manufacturer of the door plug that blew out of the Alaska flight in mid-air, runs a factory in Wichita, Kansas where the sprawling fuselage for the troubled jets is produced. Current and former Spirit employees told the Wall Street Journal that workers at the factory rush to meet unrealistic quotas, and that raising safety concerns is discouraged, if not outright punished. 'It is known at Spirit that if you make too much noise and cause too...

A Boeing 737 plane in Japan was forced to return to its point of departure on Saturday after a crack appeared in the window of the plane’s cockpit. The All Nippon Airways (ANA) domestic flight had left the city of Sapporo en route to Toyama, before turning around for an emergency landing. No one onboard was injured, a spokesperson for the airline said. John Strickland, an expert aviation consultant said that although the crack was in the outermost of the four-layered window, cracks like it “can be pretty dangerous if not fixed,” according to the BBC. “The crack was not...

A former senior manager at Boeing’s 737 factory told “NewsNation Now” that he specifically avoids flying on Max airliners due to safety concerns. “I fly all the time. And even I schedule myself away from a Max,” said Ed Pierson, a former manager at Boeing’s facility in Renton, Washington. Pierson said he’s even walked off planes after learning they’re a Max. “They swapped the planes at the last minute, and I walked on the plane, sat down, and realized it’s a Max. I got up and walked off the plane,” said Pierson. “I didn’t take that flight.”

In March of 2019 following the second deadly crash involving a Boeing 737 MAX aircraft some engineers at the Seattle FAA office wanted to ground the planes. But they were overruled... Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, saying Joe Biden is senile in making his threat this week... Tonight a source saying that the US government's Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is getting ready to put the troubled First Republic Bank... An Israeli air strike in Syria tonight... The US Army grounding its helicopter fleet with a mandatory safety training program... A Dutch police officer...

Pfizer is asking the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization to administer its COVID-19 vaccine to 12 to 15 year olds... Tonight its estimated that 34.66 percent of the US population has been partially vaccinated and 20.66 fully vaccinated. Australia ordering 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine as it moves away from original plans to use the AstraZeneca vaccine... The 24-hour garrisoning of the fenced off Grace Life Church near Edmonton, Alberta continuing today. It appears that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police reinforced their presence ahead of possible Sunday worship outside the fences... The US is sending...

The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released an update on Friday about the United Airlines Boeing 777 engine incident. In late February, the aircraft was climbing out of Denver International Airport (DEN) when the pilots throttled up the engines in anticipation of turbulence. Shortly after that, a loud bang and fire coming from the engine led the pilots to bring the plane back to Denver. United Airlines, shortly after, voluntarily removed 24 of its Pratt & Whitney 4000-powered Boeing 777 aircraft from service. The airline is working to fill in the gaps in its schedules as these aircraft...

Engine-related issues due to technological glitches are emerging as the latest source of setbacks for the airline stocks, which are already reeling under the coronavirus-induced weak air-travel demand. Notably, on Feb 20, 2021, United Airlines’ UAL Flight 328 made an emergency landing at the Denver International Airport following an engine failure. On Feb 22, a Delta Air Lines DAL flight made an emergency landing at the Salt Lake International Airport after a snag in the engine was detected. American Airlines AAL became the latest U.S.- based carrier to suffer a technological breakdown. Per a Reuters report, American Airlines’ Flight 2555,...

This year, fired up by a newly intense commitment to Christianity, regretful that he wasn’t more assertive internally before the second crash, and moved by the anger and frustration of the families of those who died, Jacobsen decided that wasn’t enough. Ahead of his planned retirement from the FAA at the end of this month, he recounted his MAX experience in a Feb. 8 letter to the parents of Samya Rose Stumo, a 24-year-old American who died on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302. “I felt a strong conviction that I should help with healing the families of the 737 Max crashes,”...

The supporters of the Second Amendment and the Antifa expected to be in Richmond, Virginia tomorrow with the Second Amendment groups protesting new laws and Antifa ready to act violently. As the FBI moved to arrest alleged Neo-Nazis headed for the rally in recent days, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency and imposed a weapons ban..... World leaders are described as "fully committed" to a peaceful resolution of the Libyan conflict.... A mass rally in Hong Kong today by pro-democracy demonstrators..... "a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their president" Part...

Iran is now saying thata Ukrainian airliner was shot down by accident..... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is now saying she will send the articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate for a trial.... Three Republicans joined the Democrats in voting for the war powers resolution symbolically limiting President Trumps power to make war against Iran.... Islamic State issuing a statement in support of the death of Iranian General Qassem Soliemani.... The United States announcing sanctions on Iran in retaliation for the missile attacks on US forces in Iraq Tuesday night..... Eight reported dead in eastern Syria after an...

The release of a batch of internal messages has raised more questions about the safety of Boeing's 737 Max. In one of the communications, an employee said the plane was "designed by clowns". The planemaker described the communications as "completely unacceptable". The 737 Max was grounded in March 2019 after two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, which killed almost 350 people in total. Boeing said it had released the hundreds of redacted messages as part of its commitment to transparency. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and US Congress were given unredacted versions of the communications last month. "These communications...

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...

Europe's Airbus has become the world's biggest plane maker this year as its US rival Boeing struggles to get its bestselling MAX jets back in the skies. Airbus — which has trailed Boeing since 2012 — delivered a record 863 aircraft in 2019, Reuters news agency reported, citing airport and tracking sources. Boeing, on the other hand, had delivered just 345 planes by the end of November and is on course for its worst performance in more than a decade, mainly hurt by the grounding of the MAX aircraft. The US plane maker delivered 806 aircraft in 2018, slightly more...

The plane was grounded worldwide in March after two crashes that killed 346 people. The company determined a software fix was likely to correct the issue with the automatic safety feature that caused the crashes. However, as part of a December audit of the plane’s safety ordered by the US Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing found “previously unreported concerns” with wiring in the 737 Max, according to a report earlier Sunday from the New York Times. The company informed the FAA last month that it is looking into whether two sections of wiring that control the tail of the plane are...

The wall will be begun and nearly completed by the end of 2020.Legal challenges to the construction of the wall will fail.President Trump's popularity will grow the more the wall is completed.Impeachment will either never make it to the Senate due to Pelousy's fascistic tactics, or it will arrive and be a) shredded item by item or b) called up for a vote and rejected on a bipartisan basis.President Trump's popularity will grow the longer the hoaxpeachment totters on.In Venezuela, there will be a civil war between factions of the military, one of which will initially support Maduro, then...

NEW YORK - Boeing provided a fresh batch of incriminating documents on the 737 MAX to regulators and congressional investigators, only hours after announcing a leadership shakeup, officials confirmed Tuesday. The document dump came just before Christmas, when many officials already are on holiday, and "appear to point to a very disturbing picture" about Boeing's response to safety issues regarding the 737 MAX, a congressional aide told AFP in an email Tuesday. The aide said Boeing sent the documents "late in the evening" Monday to congressional staff investigating the issues with the aircraft, which has been grounded since March following...