FWIW, it's only the Max 9s which have this issue. The Max 7s and 8s don't have an exit in that location (too few seats) and the Max 10s require an exit door to be installed in that location, not the door plug.
It's only the Max 9s that have the option of the door plug, if the installed seat count is below the threshold where an additional exit is required.
Yes, this seems like a top to bottom culture rot problem at Boeing sacrificing quality control in exchange for reduced costs.
A few years ago, I had read that certain airlines demanded planes manufacturered in Washington rather than South Carolina, and I wonder if that information actually ends up being a useful signal for better quality planes.
> A few years ago, I had read that certain airlines demanded planes manufacturered in Washington rather than South Carolina, and I wonder if that information actually ends up being a useful signal for better quality planes.
The one with the blown door plug supposedly came off the Renton assembly line. No one is safe.
Correct, but I've seen a lot of confusion that its a systemic problem (ala MCAS) with the Max family. It doesn't look that way. It looks like a manufacturing problem on one particular variant.
The 8 had the great MCAS crashes (boeing solution ? tell the pilot to turn it off when it happens !), the 7 has anti icing that burnout the engine nacelle and make it fall (boeing solution ? being exempted from the certification requirement of your engines not falling off and we will fix it in a few years !), the 9 has doors that fall off (boeing doesn't even have a solution on that one, but they know others bolts are at risk too since they warned to check the rudder bolts on jan 5), ... At this point it's a systemic problem with the MAX overall. The only one without issue is the 10 and it's because it's not out yet, but Boeing want a fast track on certification for it because obviously they're doing so good with these there is no need to fully check it.
And frankly this time we're talking about the worst of the worst, the basic first step of making airplanes : being able to ensure parts of it doesn't fall off for no reason. This is not a design issue, not a cost cutting "they didn't put enough sensors" reason, this is straight up "their manufacturing is bad and their QA is not able to catch it", ... These things have barely started flying and 5 of those are already affected (well, 6 ...), this is absurd.
Sure MBA taking over tends to kill engineering companies ability to make great product, but even Hewlett Packard is still able to make printers that print (they suck, but that's by choice from them)...
I've seen a lot of confusion that its a systemic problem
United found loose fasteners in a different locations on each of the five aircraft they found loose fasteners on. This is right on the heels of another emergency AD for the MAX about loose fasteners in a completely different location. That definitely hints at a systemic problem.
If you expand the scope a bit, Boeing's had nasty assembly and manufacturing problems across its whole model lineup. I highly doubt this is a one off problem.
It's only the Max 9s that have the option of the door plug, if the installed seat count is below the threshold where an additional exit is required.