Public Comment

Safety of Boeing's 737 Max 8 Questioned

Jagjit Singh
Thursday April 11, 2019 - 09:35:00 PM

Serious questions have been raised regarding the airworthiness and safety of Boeing’s 737 MAX 8. 

Thy family of the grandniece of Ralph Nader, who perished in the devastating crash, filed the first American lawsuit. More lawsuits are sure to follow. 

Initial findings showed that FAA does not have the required expertise and expected Boeing to self-regulate. It also speaks of the criminal lack of concern for airline safety by the Trump administration and Congress by cutting the budget of the FAA. The toothless FAA does not even have a statute to level criminal charges against Boeing. Even after the 787 Dreamliner was grounded in 2013 with battery fires, the FAA remained a bystander 

Boeing is now facing a criminal probe from the Justice Department and the FBI, with an active grand jury. Meanwhile President gushed incessantly about the safety of the MAX 8 instead of consoling families who lost love ones – another appalling failure of the executive branch. 

Even if the MAX is cleared to fly the general public has soured on its reliability and the FAA who they no longer trust. There is little hope that members of Congress will demand re-regulation after it was revealed that 330 members have taken campaign contributions from Boeing including free flights and all kind of freebies such as upgrades and fee waivers. Nader made a strong case for permanently grounding the MAX 8 and claimed there was no fix for its engineered instability and stalling problems.