Great article. The most concerning is that Boeing has become yet another enshittified company, chasing profit too hard over all else, and they are going to kill people with their decisions.

“The fact that the mistake was made at all, however, suggests an organization that is decreasingly inclined, or able, to make the kinds of costly, counterintuitive, and difficult-to-justify choices on which it built its exemplary history of reliability. These choices always pertain to marginal, almost negligible, concerns — simply because reliability at high altitudes is all about the margins — so their consequences manifest slowly. But their effects are cumulative and inexorable. “

What it says is, don’t buy Boeing, buy Airbus instead.

For years I’ve always checked that the plane I’m on is an Airbus because the few Boeing’s I’ve been on rattled like mad and the build quality and materials used were clearly rubbish. I’m not surprised the doors are falling off…

Really good article.

This comes as close to perfectly capturing my dismay and horror at the devolution of Boeing in the last few decades, as well as describing a level of rigor that I deeply wish was far more prevalent in engineering as a general practice across all industries these days. But “driving shareholder value” (thanks for that, Milton Friedman) is crushing one of the primary aspects that I think made American engineering so outstanding for so long.

Edits are in bold

This was a spectacular read. Consumable even with no engineering background.

Really well done.