Fingers crossed!
“Official inquiries are meant to tell us what went wrong, and what to do to prevent future disasters and scandals,” says Mike Rigby of MRA Research. “They do find out what went wrong, but we’re very poor learners when it comes to prevention.”
How useful are the inquiries that follow disasters and scandals such as Grenfell, the Post Office and, in the US, aircraft company Boeing?
We certainly learn about the causes of the disasters and scandals, and we learn lots about cover ups and denials, and the refusals to accept blame, but we don’t seem to learn what to do to prevent further disasters and scandals. Which is the main reason we hold official inquiries.
Boeing is struggling to come to terms with the deaths of 346 people in two similar crashes in March 2019 and December 2020. The Boeing 737 MAX passenger airliner that crashed was grounded worldwide, and whistleblowers immediately began to contradict the company’s statements.
This January a door blew out while an aircraft was in the air and the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) launched a new investigation into inspections not done. The door was shown to have left the factory minus two bolts that should have secured it to the aircraft.
The CEO at the time of the crashes was forced to leave. Now Boeing’s airline customer bosses have forced the current CEO and the Chair to announce their departure. And yet, Boeing is still making life difficult for whistleblowers. Two have died, possibly from the strain and social pressure, but 10 more are lined up with allegations of corner-cutting and falsification of records.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) brought charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States against Boeing in January 2021, alleging it misled the FAA during its evaluation of the 737 MAX aircraft.
And in 2021 Boeing entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ, agreeing to pay $2.5bn fines and compensation to airline customers and crash victims’ beneficiaries.
It was forced to disclose allegations of fraud and cooperate with the government to avoid committing a felony offense. Under these conditions, the DOJ agreed to defer criminal prosecution for three years.
However, this May the DOJ said Boeing had failed to honour the agreement and proposed a new deal if the company pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. Under the deal, the company must agree to the appointment of an external corporate monitor, pay a further fine of about $200m and remain on probation for three years. In return it would avoid going to a criminal trial. An unrepentant Boeing said it had honoured the terms of the 2021 settlement and looked forward to the opportunity to respond!
But Mark Lindquist, an attorney for crash victims’ families, told ABC News: “Boeing has way too much dirty laundry to risk the bright spotlight of a trial.”
Boeing has clearly not reached the stage when customers can be confident in its product, and it can start to rebuild its reputation. It’s hard to avoid flying, but when I do, I do my best to blank this from my mind and keep my fingers crossed.
This article was first published in the Builders Merchants News magazine.
