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Boeing 737 Max planes are grounded after a hole blew in one mid-flight (www.theverge.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Boeing 737 Max planes are grounded after a hole blew in one mid-flight::The FAA ordered that 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes be inspected before they can return to service following the explosive decompression of an Alaska Airlines flight.

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[–] 32 points 2 years ago (9 children)

The incident seems much more serious than an isolated case of a doorplug falling off, I wonder if they are hiding something, another design flaw maybe?

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  • [–] 31 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    My assumption is that the 737 Max is simply a fundamentally unsafe and unsound design.

    I'm sure within 15 years they'll complete the final retrofit to make it safe and sound, and in the end, it will end up costing 300% of what a new design would have.

    But, it'll actually work out for Boeing executives and shareholders, so it will be taught to future MBA student as a success story about the heroic and stoic leadership that generated record profits for the low cost of a few hundred lives.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Most of the fuselage should be insanely similar to other 737 models. I can't imagine how someone fucked up badly enough to lose a door plug,

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    That's the problem... Reusing a 50+-year-old design, with new engines and other technology that should have been used with a new fuselage design...

    I don't think they'd ground the entire fleet if this was just a mechanic who made some one-off error. There's probably some human error involved, but those on the ground human errors are only catastrophic because of the design choices Boeing made.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    I mean I'd argue it's only 30 years since NG, but that's a different argument. It's not like it isn't a proven airframe that still goes through continual process improvements. They certainly could have done things differently, but way more time and cost.

    I don't think they know the exact cause and they grounded them out of an excess of caution. I'm going to guess a process got bought off that wasn't complete. That's the kind of thing that's engineered to not fall off if it's properly installed.

    We'll see how things pan out in the next few days.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    I don't even think it was a door. I watched a video of it on TikTok and it looked like a regular row of seats. I think it was just a piece of the hull.

    Have they stated what fell off yet? I can't imagine how scary that was.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    What fell off was a plug filling in an optional emergency exit location. It was a regular row of seats because the plane didn't have the optional emergency exit installed (it is only required for high density passenger cabin configurations).

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