An ex-Boeing manager revealed he would never fly in a MAX airplane, and a former Boeing engineer advised travelers to avoid them.
“I would absolutely not fly a Max airplane,” Ed Pierson, an ex-Boeing senior manager, told the LA Times. “I’ve worked in the factory where they were built, and I saw the pressure employees were under to rush the planes out the door. I tried to get them to shut down before the first crash.”
“I would tell my family to avoid the Max. I would tell everyone, really,” Joe Jacobsen, a former Boeing and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) engineer, told the outlet.
Ex-senior Boeing staff warn flyers to avoid 737 Max 9 jets: ‘I would absolutely not fly a Max airplane’ https://t.co/U9iBlcCrv4 pic.twitter.com/p7cgMLVUXu
— New York Post (@nypost) January 31, 2024
The FAA announced Jan. 24 in a press release Boeing’s 737-9 MAX planes were clear to resume their service after being grounded following the Alaska Airlines incident Jan. 5, when a door panel blew off mid-flight. The FAA explained there will be no production expansion of the MAX planes until quality control issues are resolved. (RELATED: Biden Admin Launches Probe Into Boeing After Alaska Airlines Inflight Incident).
“The FAA today informed Boeing it will not grant any production expansion of the MAX, including the 737-9 MAX. This action comes on top of the FAA’s investigation and ramped up oversight of Boeing and its suppliers,” the press release read.
“The FAA today also approved a thorough inspection and maintenance process that must be performed on each of the grounded 171 Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft. Upon successful completion, the aircraft will be eligible to return to service,” the press release added.
“The quality assurance issues we have seen are unacceptable,” Mike Whitaker, an FAA Administrator, said in the press release. “That is why we will have more boots on the ground closely scrutinizing and monitoring production and manufacturing activities.”
Jacobsen, the former Boeing engineer, told the LA Times it was “premature” to let the planes return to service since there have been numerous concerns about the safety of the MAX 8 and MAX 9 planes for years.
“Instead of fixing one problem at a time and then waiting for the next one, fix all of them,” he told the outlet.
Pierson told the outlet the return of the Max 9 planes was “another example of poor decision making, and it risks the public safety.”