Boeing achieved a rare feat in Washington on Wednesday, as the company was the subject of not one, but two hearings in the Senate. In January, one of the door panels blew out of a Boeing 737 Max mid-flight, creating a near-fatal explosion that was visible to those watching from the ground. In March, flames erupted from a 737-900’s engine, and a tire fell off a 777-200 taking off from San Francisco.
By the time the 737 Max disasters came around, much of Boeing’s regulatory oversight was being undertaken ‘within a company unit inside Boeing’ whose staff were paid by the company. The FAA still managed to predict the problems with the MCAS, estimating that the system could cause as many as 15 crashes over 30 years. But they did nothing.