Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via AP
The flight deck of United Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft seen in April of last year
In a little-noticed Federal Aviation Administration filing last month, federal regulators requested comments on a proposed rule that would mandate Boeing update a critical communications malfunction in their 787 Dreamliner plane that could lead to disastrous accidents.
According to reports received by the FAA, very high frequency (VHF) radio channels are transferring between the active and standby settings without flight crew input. “The uncommanded frequency changes could result in missed communications between the flightcrew and Air Traffic Control,” the FAA announcement reads. The proposed FAA rule would instruct the aeronautics company to address the problem by updating software that controls the in-flight radio.
Comments left on the FAA’s website regarding the new rule suggest both consumers and airline operators are still feeling uneasy with Boeing. “Given Boeing’s history of slipshod management and prioritization of profits over passenger safety, I would not fly on one of their planes if you paid me to do so,” one anonymous user wrote.
Even more concerning is a comment written by Qatar Airways, which claims that even after the software patch recommended by the FAA was installed on its Boeing fleet, communication problems have persisted.
“Qatar Airways already modified all affected B787 airplanes with … new LSAPs on all Tuning Control Panels (TCP) to address Un-commanded VHF Frequency Change between active and standby,” the comment reads. “However … Qatar Airways flight crew are still reporting similar issues from post-mod airplanes. QTR already reported the events to Boeing/Collins aerospace for further investigation and root cause determination … As of now, Qatar believes that the issue is not completely addressed, and the unsafe condition still exists.”
The proposed rule comes as consumer sentiment on air travel reaches record lows after fears of cuts to the FAA by the Trump administration, and a spate of disastrous crashes and even more near misses. In January, a Bombardier CRJ700 collided with a military helicopter above the Potomac River, killing more than 60 passengers in addition to the helicopter’s flight crew.
That plane was not manufactured by Boeing, but the U.S. company has been repeatedly accused of failing to update safety standards after crashes or near incidents, most recently when a Boeing 737 flown by South Korean carrier Jeju Air crashed in December, killing 179 passengers and crew. In 2018 and 2019, two 737 MAX plane crashes, blamed on malfunctioning software, killed a total of 346 people.
Qatar Airways claims that even after the software patch recommended by the FAA was installed on its Boeing fleet, communication problems have persisted.
Since 1990, when Boeing was restructured to remove engineers from senior leadership and hand the reins over to Wall Street, safety issues have continued to expand. What was once a premier example of domestic manufacturing prowess now finds itself hauled before Congress on a yearly basis to explain the latest catastrophic failure in its manufacturing and safety procedures.
Boeing’s failure to clear its name led members of Congress on the Senate Commerce Committee this week to interrogate Boeing’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg on what steps the company is taking to remedy the steady accumulation of crashes, collisions, and malfunctions that have plagued it for decades.
Ortberg began his comments by telling committee members that “Boeing has made serious missteps in recent years” and that it has compensated with “sweeping changes to the people, processes, and overall structure of our company.” But committee members were quick to point out the holes in Ortberg’s testimony. “I want to get straight to the point. Mr. Ortberg, does Boeing currently have a single representative of workers on its board of directors?” Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) asked.
“No, sir,” Ortberg replied.
“Do you agree that it’s a problem that the engineers and aerospace professionals responsible for designing and manufacturing the planes are excluded from boardroom decision-making?” Markey asked, before turning to a scathing assessment of Boeing’s board.
Markey pointed out that one board member listed as having “safety expertise” was the CEO of Duke Energy with a background in accounting, who was indicted during the Enron scandal. Another board member with safety expertise was a banker with two decades of experience at Morgan Stanley, and is now a biotech CEO.
During the hearing, Ortberg said Boeing is currently in negotiations with the Department of Justice to reach a final settlement over a charge of criminal fraud conspiracy leveled at the company for its 737 crashes. The plea deal that Boeing signed has been condemned by the families of those who died in the crash, even after the company agreed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to improve safety and compliance measures at the firm. In May, the DOJ found that Boeing violated an earlier 2021 agreement that protected the firm from prosecution over the crashes, and renewed its efforts at criminal prosecution.
But despite the weakness of the deal, Boeing is negotiating to eliminate the guilty plea it filed in conjunction with the settlement, a potential example of the corporate pardons that have become normalized under the Trump administration. A federal judge has asked for a hearing in June.
One former FAA engineer, who spoke to the Prospect on background for fear of reprisal given the high-profile death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett last year, said that he suspects the radio issue does not stem from a software issue, but rather the shoddy manufacturing procedures that have increasingly led to in-flight problems in the 737 MAX.
“Basically when they can never figure out what’s wrong, it’s usually some sort of intermittent wiring thing,” the former engineer said. “You know, it’s kind of like your car, when they can’t figure out what’s wrong, they start replacing things. And then if that doesn’t work, you know, it’s like, oh, maybe it’s the wiring in that airplane.”
