LogFAQs > #979333296

Nah. They're legitimately a shit company.

https://jacobin.com/2024/01/boeing-spirit-safety-regulations-airlines

Excerpts from the link, in case you don't wish to read the whole thing:

Last weeks high-altitude debacle in which a door plug manufactured by Spirit blew off an Alaska Airlines plane mid-flight over Portland, Oregon followed two Boeing aircraft crashes in 2018 and 2019 that together killed 346 people, and another fatal incident in 2018 that saw a woman partially sucked out of a plane when a small engine explosion shattered a window.

On Monday, the Lever reported allegations from Spirit employees of excessive defects in the suppliers manufacturing. According to court documents, the workers said they were instructed to conceal the problems. Some workers who spoke up were fired, according to allegations stemming from a new federal lawsuit.

While Spirit workers were allegedly being told to falsify inspection reports and ship out products to Boeing as quickly as possible, the company was doling out campaign cash to lawmakers who then fought for the companys interests in Washington.

Over the last four years, Boeing and Spirits political action committees and employees have together reported spending more than $65 million on lobbying and federal campaign contributions. That includes Spirit donors spending $210,000 lobbying Congress on advanced aviation manufacturing and other issues in the first three quarters of 2023, disclosures show.

In the first three quarters of 2023, Boeing donors spent more than $10.6 million the sixteenth most of any US company lobbying the White House, lawmakers, the FAA, and other regulators on Aviation safety, certifications, and other issues. The companys lobbying expenditures have ranged between $12.6 million and $15.2 million annually since 2018.

Of late, Boeing has been pressing regulators at the FAA to weaken safety standards for its new 737 MAX 7 models.

Theres mounting evidence that Boeing has known about myriad safety issues and critics say the company has done little to properly address them. Boeing officials were aware of the faulty safety sensors that led to crashes in 2018 and 2019.

In fact, messages sent between 2015 and 2018 among Boeing employees shows how they joked that the 737 MAX planes were designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys. Messages also show employees bragging about how they tricked a federal aviation regulator by making them feel stupid for trying to require additional training.

Boeing officials are also aware of potentially deadly side effects from an anti-ice system that can cause engine parts to overheat and break off mid-flight, but are seeking a safety exemption to allow the parts to be used.