This archive report was first published on 10 January 2020.
Boeing Co has faced intense scrutiny over the development of its 737 MAX aircraft, with the release of hundreds of internal messages revealing harshly critical comments about the plane and its regulators.
According to the messages, some Boeing employees referred to the plane as 'designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys.'
One employee asked another in an instant messaging exchange on February 8, 2018, 'Would you put your family on a MAX simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn’t.' The second employee responded, 'No.'
The 737 MAX has been grounded since March 2019 after an Ethiopian Airlines flight nose-dived, killing 346 people. The plane maker has been struggling to get its best-selling plane back in the air and restore public confidence.
Boeing said the communications 'do not reflect the company we are and need to be, and they are completely unacceptable.'
US lawmakers have expressed outrage over the messages, with House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio saying they '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.'
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.'
Boeing has changed its stance on pilot simulator training, saying it will recommend pilots do simulator training before they resume flying the 737 MAX.
Boeing's 737 chief technical pilot said in a March 2017 email, '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.'
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.'
Boeing's new CEO David Calhoun is set to take the reins on Monday, and the company is under pressure to overhaul its culture.
