Bloomberg Businessweek December 23, 2019
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Singapore and London, amid an historic wave of
orders, it relied on hired help known as “purchased
service pilots,” or PSPs. Boeing’s longtime trainers
had another abbreviation for them: DBCs, or “dirt-
bag contractors.”
In practice, according to interviews with more
than a dozen pilots and engineers who participated
in the Max’s development, the turmoil left the air-
craft’s cockpit designers with a lack of input from the
instructors who regularly saw how the typical airline
pilot responded to unusual situations. Even among
the pilots, there were communications breakdowns,
partly caused by disagreements over unionization.
At times conversations were civil but terse.
Boeing’s fight with the pilots came at the same
time as layoffs among the engineers and was part
of a drive, these people say, to lessen the clout
of Seattle-area unions. Company reassignments
placed thousands of miles between designers hon-
ing flight-deck concepts in Seattle, trainers working
with airline pilots in Miami, and a team in California
that provides day-to-day support of airplanes in the
field. “The driving factor was monetary,” says Mike
Coker, Boeing’s former chief training pilot. “Those
relationships between the various professional
organizations that for decades resulted in a good
product, an improved product—they weren’t taken
into consideration as much as the bottom line.”
In an email, a Boeing spokesman said that “train-
ing requirements are mandated by global regulators
and implemented by airline customers. Boeing con-
tinues to invest in dedicated capability and resources
to assist our customers in training.” He added that
Boeing has 41 full flight simulators in nine locations
across four continents.
Three former senior Boeing executives, how-
ever, say privately that they regret the profit-driven
imperatives imposed on the training process and
seeit ascriticaltounderstandinghowa company
renownedformeticulousengineeringmissedthe
marksobadlywiththeMax.Forcentury-old Boeing,
whose name is nearly synonymous with flight, the
crisis isn’t only a human tragedy but a deep embar-
rassment and a financial disaster costing billions of
dollars.Andit’smadeChiefExecutiveOfficerDennis
Muilenburg,who’stakenheatfromcongressional
leadersandcrashvictims’familiesintensehearings,
thetechnocraticfaceofa deadlycorporateblunder.
Thefinancialpressureis onlymountingafterthe
FAApushedbackonthetimelinetogettheMax
backintheair,promptingBoeingtoannounceon
Dec. 16 thatit willsuspendproductionofitsbig-
gestcashgeneratorstartinginJanuary.Thecom-
panyalreadyhasalmost 400 newlybuiltaircraft
languishing in storage because of a global flying ban
that began nine months ago. “This pause may indi-
cate that the reentry into service of the 737 Max is
not just around the corner, as bullish investors may
have been anticipating,” Ron Epstein, an analyst at
Bank of America Corp., wrote in a note to clients.
It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. In late
2010, Airbus SE surprised Boeing by offering airlines
an update of the 737’s chief competitor, the A320.
The new version would have more powerful engines
to save on fuel but few other changes, allowing cus-
tomers to keep down the costs of training pilots to fly
it. Boeing responded by announcing a similar plan
to modernize the 737, a plane designed in the 1960s
that had already been updated twice.
After a design meeting, Pete Parsons, an execu-
tive in the commercial airplanes unit with a mouth-
ful of a title (director of program management
best practices and program management func-
tional excellence), declared the plans “the best I’ve
seen.” He told Boeing’s internal newsletter that he
was especially impressed with the “clear commu-
nications” and “high level of collaboration.” As Jim
Albaugh, then Boeing’s chief of commercial air-
planes, laid out themarchingordersfortheMaxin
the December 2011newsletter:“We’regoingtomake
this the simplestre-engine possible. We’re only
◀ A simulator at the
training center in Miami
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400
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1958 2018
● Commercialaircraft
producedbyBoeing
◼ 737 Max
Course
73 7 Max
