Technology

It's not supposed to do that?

some of them are built so that the front doesn't fall off at all.

Except this one isn't even a Boeing issue - this is a plane Delta has operated since 1992. This is entirely Delta's maintenance's fault. Boeing will still get blamed for it, of course.

The thing is, every Boeing plane that has any problem is going to make it to the news right now. So it's very hard to see what is relevant and what is just "one of those things". So, this will make them look worse than they really are.

Having said that, they have problems. My opinion is that cost-cutting has created all their recent actual problems (MCAS, missing bolts, loose bolts etc) and I'd argue that unless the actual location(s) responsible for these problems is identified, the safest thing to do would be to recall ALL aircraft recently (last 3 years AT LEAST) serviced, repaired or had their configuration changed at a Boeing owned or subcontracted location should be reviewed for substandard work.

My reasoning here is that if we have loose/missing bolts on the 737 Max 8/9 and -900ER. It won't stop there, it is going to almost certainly be an institutionalised problem of quality control slippage that could affect any aircraft maintenance, repair, or adjustment operation.

But, I'm not an aviation expert, so my opinion is worth very little.

Well, if proper maintenance was done and the part still failed due to a design or quality issue that was improperly QC’d (missed, skipped, etc) then yeah it could be Boeings fault.

They’re getting extra scrutiny right now because of all the incidents recently, and all the anecdotal stories of former employees talking about how a bunch of suits are destroying it from the inside to make a quick buck.

And frankly, they fucking deserve it.

Careful. Boeing already tried the “but it’s not our job” excuse on a few major incidences with an executive now locked behind bars after pushing bribes to cover it up . They’d be best backing off on taking an attitude about where to assign blame. They got a lot of red spots that will never come out.

If I recall correctly, the aircraft manufacturer writes the maintenance guidelines.

This could be a Boeing issue, if it's due to something that happened at the time the aircraft was built, or due to a foreseeable gap in the maintenance guidelines.

It could be a Delta issue, if they weren't following the maintenance guidelines, or a maintenance contractor working for them wasn't following them and they didn't catch it.

It could also have been (very small but nonzero chance) the result of physical trauma to the plane that wasn't foreseen, back in the 1990s when it was built, as something that might cause an issue of this magnitude. I haven't yet seen any information on whether this particular aircraft has a history of hard landings or running over debris on the runway. Freak accidents do happen.

All of those have precedents in aviation history.

I remember watching this PBS Frontline segment on plane maintenance 10 years or so ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw0b020OFj4

I imagine we still have those problems and the recent news of counterfeit parts entering the market is scary.

Good thing these recent incidents ended up with no serious injuries or death. Perhaps this timing is good in some really weird way as the Supreme Court starts considering powers of regulatory agencies and concerns around government funding to highlight the importance and need for this government role.

Into a different environment, right?

It's not very typical, let me make that point.

Some are even designed so the front doesn't fall off.

Wasn't it built so that the nose wheel wouldn't fall off?

The title is "Nose wheel falls off Boeing 757 airliner waiting for takeoff" and that's exactly what happened. That's not clickbait, since it's not deceptive, sensationalized, or otherwise misleading. It's just news.

Your trip is going to get complicated

Any regulatory agencies that enforce this sort of stuff being defunded, understaffed, or de-toothed in the last 4-8 years?

That's what this smells like, and we should really be getting ourselves ready for more of this in other industries.

In fairness, the 757 was designed when Boeing was still engineering focused and is one of the best commercial aircraft ever produced. This airframe, N672DL, is 32 years old, so it was almost certainly an issue with Delta’s maintenance. It was also quickly repaired and returned to service the next day.

No one was criticizing Airbus when one of their aircraft was found the other day missing fasteners before a flight: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/nyc-bound-flight-canceled-passenger-31941807.amp