Boeing has had a very bad couple of months, from the infamous door plug blowout to a series of emergency landings to a dead whistleblower to a sudden loss of control while a jet flew over New Zealand.
Not good press for a company that asks travelers to entrust it with their lives at 35,000 feet.
So…can you trust Boeing planes?
Captain Laura Einsetler, a 30-year commercial airline pilot, told KNX News Chief Correspondent Charles Feldman she’s still “extremely confident” in the manufacturer.
“I say that because this is the kind of situation where you look at and you see, yes, okay, this door plug did blow out, and at the same time making the point, there was a huge hole in the side of the aircraft and it flew perfectly fine,” she said.
Einsetler said not to worry because pilots are “trained and experienced in handling almost every situation that can come our way to keep everyone safe.”
As for concerns voiced by the FAA that Boeing’s safety culture is “inadequate” and employees fear retaliation for reporting safety concerns, Einsetler tentatively agreed there may be reason to trust the manufacturer less today than in past decades.
“I mean, you have to look at the history of the manufacturing. Boeing's been around for 100 years and has made, gosh, almost 100,000 aircraft that fly successfully around the world,” she said. “Having said that, there's definitely a situation where, you know, the last few decades – and you see this in other industries as well – where stock price can tend to take a higher precedence than it should.”
If that doesn’t assuage your fears, Einsetler also said pilots “have very high standards and processes and procedures and checklists and things” to ensure planes are safe before takeoff.
Several inspections before the Alaska Airlines door plug incident did reveal two separate warning lights and pressurization issues, but the airline chose to delay sending the plane in for maintenance. Alaska’s vice president for maintenance and engineering, Donald Wright, told the New York Times they typically wait until a warning light comes on three separate times to consider taking a plane out of service.
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