“When Safety Gets Run Over by Big Business”

The Ongoing Boeing 737 MAX Saga

There are disturbing aspects of the recent Indonesian airline accident that will linger for a long time.??What significant changes to the Boeing 737 MAX training and/or aircraft systems may eventually result is a matter for speculation, but it’s always going to be most convenient for corporations to dismiss accidents under the guise of “pilot error”.

Following the harrowing plunge of a Lion Air 737 MAX into the ocean despite the flight crew obviously struggling to regain control of the jet, there was a fairly unanimous outcry from aviation and safety professionals, to include pilot union labor leaders, that something was amiss with the 737 Max.?The discovery that certain systems had been modified in the 737 in order to gain certification while detailed information about these modifications was withheld from pilots, drew sharp comments from the three pilots union Presidents in the US who operate the 737 MAX.??This strikes me as not only normal but exactly what these safety advocates might be expected to do given that they represent pilots, and for professional pilots’ safety is Job #1.???One pilots union leader, however, chose to side with big business interests who want this story to fade as quickly as possible.??At odds with every other union leader and aviation safety pundit, Air Line Pilots Association Chairman for the United Airlines chapter, Captain Todd Insler, dismissed the issue and concerns out of hand.

What most passengers today may not know about the airline industry is that safety has always been improved in the aftermath of a major accident.??These improvements have always been “written in blood” as pilots will tell you.??When the cost of improvements in aircraft equipment or flight procedures are high, or when financial gains are jeopardized, there are surely those who push back.??But more often than not the safety of the traveling public wins out and pilots and safety advocates are successful in pushing through new regulations and equipment requirements that collectively have improved airline safety to the point that many major US airlines have not suffered a fatal crash or accident in decades.?

ValuJet 592 went down May 11th,1996 due to poor procedures concerning the shipping of hazardous materials.??Oxygen canisters caught fire in a cargo bay, and ignited a massive fire, which burned through flight control cables and hydraulic lines, causing the aircraft to become unflyable before plummeting out of control into the Everglades.??They were airborne less than 15 minutes.??When exploring the financial angles regarding this tragic accident, one has to look at how the airline industry viewed fires on aircraft.??There had been so few fires resulting in tragedy on airborne aircraft that when the subject of placing cargo fire suppression equipment on all commercial aircraft surfaced, it all boiled down to dollars vs. sense.??It was estimated at the time the total cost for all U.S. aircraft to be equipped would be in the vicinity of 300 million dollars.?This was a lot of money at the time when airlines had struggled for two decades following Deregulation to find a way to earn profits consistently.??In other words, the risk at the time did not seem to support the expenditure of funds in airline board rooms.??

Valujet was an up-and-coming airline that was growing like mad and had captured the public’s interest with their cute logo “Critter” and rock bottom fares out of places like Delta’s fortress Atlanta.??When ValuJet 592 crashed the resultant news play and law suits meant the end of ValuJet and over $250 million paid out to the families of the deceased.??Suddenly that industry wide cost seemed not so expensive after all, and soon cargo fire suppression equipment was placed on all US commercial aircraft.??The eventual cost???105 lives.

The Lion Air crash and resultant shocking news about the Boeing 737 MAX flight control issues that were discovered during certification only became known to all industry pilots following the ongoing investigation into the accident.?Boeing was forced to issue bulletins and information, and the airlines have done so as well.??Pilots today are certainly aware of more facts about the 737 MAX and they can use this awareness to maximize safety in their service to the traveling public.??It’s the leaders of pilot unions around the world, and many safety advocates in the airline and aerospace industries, who we have to thank for this.??These unified responses from major pilot union Presidents and safety conscious pilot advocates put a spotlight on continuous improvement – the primary safety job of every professional aviator globally.

_________________________________

“Pilots are not being told or taught everything they need to know about their airplanes,”said Chesley Sullenberger, the renowned pilot who made an emergency landing on the Hudson River a decade ago that saved every person on board.??“It is not easier or cheaper or requires less training to fly an automated airplane. It frequently requires more, because you have to have a deep understanding of how a system works, including the dark corners, the counterintuitive things it might do in certain circumstances. Many foreign carriers are trying to take people with zero flying experience, put them in simulators and quickly put them in the right seat of a jetliner. They don’t have the experience, knowledge, skills and confidence to be the absolute master of the aircraft start to finish.”?(LA Times)

“A lot of the optimization that the computer is doing is not made clear to the pilot,”said Douglas Moss, an instructor at USC’s Viterbi Aviation Safety and Security Program. He is a former United Airlines captain and before that, an Air Force test pilot, as well as an attorney.“The pilot is sitting there for 10 or 15 seconds trying to figure out why the computer is pitching up the nose or adjusting the throttle. I can think of thousands of times when the autopilot or flight management system would do something that caught me by surprise. Almost always, it is the right thing to do, but it is the pilot who is responsible for the safety of the flight.”?(LA Times)

_________________________________

Dennis Tajer, an American Airlines captain and spokesman for the Allied Pilots Assn., agrees automated systems should result in more pilot training, not less.??“It makes the aircraft a bit more complicated, so understanding that, being able to utilize it and making it a part of your safety standard is critical,”?he said. “When a piece of equipment fails, it’s incumbent on the pilot to keep control of the plane,”?he said. “Stick and rudder skills save lives.”?(LA Times)

________________________________

Jon Weaks, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, said the airline and the pilots?“were kept in the dark.”

“We do not like the fact that a new system was put on the aircraft and wasn’t disclosed to anyone or put in the manuals,”he said in an interview. What’s more, he noted, Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration have now warned?“that the system may not be performing as it should.”

“Is there anything else on the MAX Boeing has not told the operators?”he added.?“If there is, we need to be informed.”??(Seattle Times)

__________________________________

Capt. Mike Michaelis, chairman of the safety committee of the?Allied Pilots Association (APA) at American Airlines, sent out a message to pilots informing them of details Boeing had shared with the airline about a new 737 MAX system called MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System).

“This is the first description you, as 737 pilots, have seen,”the message from the pilots association at American reads.?“It is not in the American Airlines 737 Flight Manual … nor is there a description in the Boeing FCOM (Flight Crew Operations Manual). It will be soon.”

The description of MCAS provided by Boeing states that the system is designed to activate only?“during steep turns with elevated load factors and during flaps up flight at airspeeds approaching stall”and that it is?“commanded by the Flight Control computer using input data from sensors and other airplane systems.”

Michaelis’ message told American pilots to familiarize themselves with the procedure for cutting off that system.?“At the present time, we have found no instances of AOA anomalies with our 737 MAX aircraft. That is positive news, but it is no assurance that the system will not fail,”he wrote.???(Seattle Times)

_____________________________________

As this tragedy broke and the news developed, one news report stated that “only three U.S. airlines are currently flying the MAX, the third being United Airlines.??A representative for the United Airlines pilots declined to comment until more information is available.”??(Seattle Times)

This is where the safety train went off the rails and big corporate interests finally took over. By the time Captain Todd Insler, Chairman of the United Airlines pilot group, gathered more information and had something to say, it was right in line with management and reeked of corporate speak.??There is no problem according to Capt. Insler, which is strikingly in contradiction to all other active aviation leaders and line pilots.??

In a Seattle Times article, Insler?said many systems on an airplane work in the background without the pilot’s knowledge. He compared it to?watching television:?“I don’t need to know how it works.”?

Insler said it’s premature to say anything about the cause of the Lion Air crash.?“I don’t jump to conclusions,”he said.??Yet with his next breath he draws a conclusion,?“The story here is not why we didn’t know about (the new system), it’s why the pilots didn’t fly the plane.”?(Seattle Times)

You can imagine how well this statement sat with the airline labor leaders of the other big US carriers who had already spoken to the issue, but Insler’s comments should not surprise anyone when one learns that the other hat Captain Insler wears is that of?United Airlines Board of Directors Member.??

It’s no great news flash that maximum safety would be run over by maximum profits in any industry, but what may be something of a news flash to many readers is that the largest pilots’ union, the Air Line Pilots Association, has a long history of this sort of confused leadership.??ALPA leaders have many times in the past featherbedded themselves into corporate and big government jobs following their work for the union.??Captain Randy Babbitt, ALPA National President during the 1990’s ended up working as FAA Administrator but had to resign following a?DUI arrest, which was conveniently dismissed, and then landed his next job as Senior VP of Labor Relations for Southwest Airlines.??Captain Duane Woerth, ALPA President following Babbitt, ended up working on the Board of Directors for Hawaiian Airlines.??Captain Howard Attarian, ALPA’s #2 national officer under Woerth, wound up Senior VP of Flight Operations for United Airlines.??A later ALPA President, Captain Lee Moak left flying behind to create a lobbying firm in Washington D.C. using the contacts he made as ALPA President.??Unfortunately for his former union constituents,?The Moak Group includes a relationship with an outfit called Troutman Sanders LLP.??When you read their by-line you begin to see that some of these big union leaders had to have been pretty poor unionists, and thus it’s also easy to ask if they really concerned themselves with the #1 job of an airline pilots union, which is?safety.??After all, how can you when this is your intent:

“For clients wishing to avoid a unionized workplace, we represent management in union elections, defeating union organization attempts and winning decertification elections across the country.??We also conduct supervisory training in union avoidance techniques.”

United Airlines BOD Member Captain Insler’s comments may have drawn sharp criticism from his union members as well as other unions, but no resignation is likely because clearly in the Washington D.C. swamp, the gravy train is something few individuals simply step off of.??

As noted in the press, Insler angrily disagreed with the national president of ALPA, his own union, for sending a letter that echoed the concern of the other two pilot unions?— APA at American and SWAPA at Southwest — about a lack of information on the MAX’s new flight-control system before the crash of Lion Air JT610.??(Seattle Times)

What was Captain Insler angered about???Captain Tim Canoll, who was at the time President of ALPA, sent a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) saying,?“We are concerned that a potential, significant?aviation system safety deficiency exists.??Information regarding the normal and non-normal?operation of this system was not provided to the front-line airline employees — the?flight crews and maintenance technicians,”Canoll wrote.?“There appears to be a significant information gap, and we want to ensure?that pilots operating these aircraft have all of the information they need to do so safely.”?(Seattle Times)

As noted in the press, Captain Insler’s comments drew a sharp rejoinder from Capt. Dennis Tajer, chairman of the Communications Committee of the Allied Pilots Association (APA), representing American Airlines pilots.?“The pilots of American Airlines, and I’m confident at Southwest Airlines too, want to know everything about all the systems on their airplanes in the interests of ensuring our passengers are safe at all times, whether in normal operations or during emergency procedures,”said Tajer in an interview.??“This system is clearly not just operating in the background,”?he said, citing information sent to American Airlines by Boeing.??“Whenever the new system is in effect, it is not hidden; it is quite active and the airplane doesn’t do what it did in the older 737 model. It changes the handling characteristics and the flight controls.”??(Seattle Times)

What is interesting to note here is that, Captain Insler does not even fly the 737 MAX, and in fact has been in a desk job for over 10 years flying very few hours and has not spent a career working in aviation safety as many subject matter experts have.??Certainly not in line with many of the experts who have spoken out regarding the 737 MAX.??He has very little authority to be speaking out on aviation safety issues as an expert in any manner, but especially so as a Member of the United Airlines BOD who has a fiduciary responsibility to the business of his corporation.

Captain Todd Insler can use his position to run cover for Boeing, the FAA, the airlines and the training programs accepted by his union, but he cannot deny the obvious: In the Lion Air crash that killed 189 people, investigators have determined that the 737 MAX MCAS system?activated and due to faulty data repeatedly pushed the nose of the airplane down.?“Tracking data indicate that the Lion Air jet pitched up and down like a roller coaster during the 12-minute flight before the pilots apparently lost control and nose-dived into the Java Sea.??Boeing sent out a warning bulletin?to all airlines operating the plane worldwide informing pilots how to cut off the system if it malfunctions. Next day, the FAA issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive mandating that all airlines make pilots aware of the procedure.”

Captain Insler is the only union leader in the country who dissented in his opinion.??The 737 has been a cash cow for decades, not only for airlines but for US GDP as orders worth billions of dollars are filled all over the globe.??An accident like Lion Air tarnishes the 737s reputation, might possibly tarnish the reputation of the airlines who fly the MAX, and it eventually has to be corrected – all of which equates to money.??Possibly big money.??With the corporate leadership of Boeing, the major US airlines, and the Air Line Pilots Association all intermingling and crossing paths like birds of a feather, the only conclusion one can draw when someone speaks out of step with safety advocates is that money always trumps safety for some individuals and organizations.??When this happens, we must question the goals and aims of those organizations and/or individuals.

In the airline industry every professional pilot knows that safety is Job #1.??Is safety always Job #1 with Boeing???One would hope so but we are talking about big money and US GDP here – the sway in D.C. and elsewhere is incredible.??Is Safety Job #1 with the airlines???One would hope so, but these are businesses after all, and the bottom line is always important at the Board of Directors table.??Is safety truly Job #1 with all union representatives???One would hope so, but a look at the past makes this claim somewhat suspect.??I urge readers to look at the facts and decide who?iscredible and is worthy of your support.??The one overriding responsibility of every aviator in the world should be safety.?Speaking out critically when needed on safety is necessary at all times, even when it comes to the smallest issues concerning aircraft training and systems reliability.??In this case, 189 people have died and the issue deserves every serious effort to prevent it from ever happening again.??Captain Todd Insler’s comments are a disgrace because they do a disservice to this effort.

I am Captain John Barton, a dues paying member of ALPA, a professional airline pilot for 28 years, a USAF veteran pilot, who is concerned with what I’m hearing, reading, and seeing in the industry.??You should be too!

References:

ValuJet 592 -?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ValuJet_Flight_592

ValuJet Settlement -?https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96442&page=1

LA Times -?www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lion-air-crash-20190204-story.html

Seattle Times -?www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/dispute-arises-among-u-s-pilots-on-boeing-737-max-system-linked-to-lion-air-crash/

Seattle Times – Scrutiny -?www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/faa-follows-boeings-737-safety-alert-with-an-emergency-directive/

Seattle Times – Pilots not told -?www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/u-s-pilots-flying-737-max-werent-told-about-new-automatic-systems-change-linked-to-lion-air-crash/

NY TIMES - Behind the Lion Air Crash, a trail of Decisions Kept Pilots in the Dark - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/03/world/asia/lion-air-plane-crash-pilots.html

#johnbartonf16 #pilotlife #pilotlifestyle #aviation #flying