If It's Boeing, I Ain't Going

Ed Pierson, executive director for the nonprofit Foundation for Aviation Safety, was flying to New York from Seattle, and scheduled his flight so as not to fly on a 737 MAX.

When he arrived at his seat, he looked at the card, and he realized that his plane had been swapped out for a MAX, so as the stewardess moved to close the door, he got up and asked to leave the plane.

The kicker to all of this, Ed Pierson is the former senior manager for the 737 program at Boeing.

This does not inspire confidence in their ability to build aircraft:

In 2018, Ed Pierson decided that he could no longer work as a senior manager for Boeing’s 737 MAX program.

At the company’s production facility in Renton, Washington, he had watched as employee morale plummeted and oversight and assembly procedures faltered. He told his superiors but retired soon after. But then fatal MAX 8 crashes occurred in 2018 and 2019. He decided to speak up publicly and was then called to testify before Congress on the problems he says he saw up close.

………

Last week, in a further bid for a fresh start, Boeing replaced the head of its 737 Max program.

Pierson, meanwhile, still refuses to fly in a MAX.

………

Last year, I was flying from Seattle to New York, and I purposely scheduled myself on a non-MAX airplane. I went to the gate. I walked in, sat down and looked straight ahead, and lo and behold, there was a 737-8/737-9 safety card. So I got up and I walked off. The flight attendant didn’t want me to get off the plane. And I’m not trying to cause a scene. I just want to get off this plane, and I just don’t think it’s safe. I said I purposely scheduled myself not to fly [on a MAX]. 

I have to believe that a lot of airlines airline are likely reconsidering future orders, and Boeing is likely not to be happy with those choices.