February 6, 2024

The government heavily regulates aviation. We used to understand that every piece of knowledge gained was written in blood after something went wrong. We are losing that understanding. See if you agree with me as you read along.

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On January 5, 2024, an Alaskan Airlines Boeing 737-9 had an explosive decompression when a door plug panel blew out shortly after takeoff.

On January 2, 2024, a Japan Airlines Airbus A350 collided with another plane in a runway incursion accident.

In 2019, there were two Boeing Max crashes; the first was Lion Air in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the second, within weeks, downed an Ethiopian Airplane. Both suffered the same software glitch/feature.

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In 2013, an Asiana flight crashed just short of the runway while landing in San Francisco.

In April of 2021, United Airlines announced that “ Racial Quotas will be prioritized over Qualifications in Pilot Hiring.”

Today, the FAA says we lack nearly 3,000 air traffic controllers. And 30% of each class of controllers washes out.

Image: X screen grab.

Yes, it is still safe to fly, but our remarkable run of safety may be coming to an end. Why? Some familiar reasons exist, the same we see in too many companies, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and academia. The usual suspects are Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity initiatives, Critical Race Theory, and Environmental, Social, and Governance initiatives currently running rampant nationwide.

Aviation accidents and problems touch on every other aspect of our society, which is being “reinvented” to correct perceived wrongs at the expense of competency, reliability, affordability, and, at times, lives. Aviation has been an “early adopter” of most current woke society imperatives, including zero-emission flying mandates, social promotion, and accepting government regulations, regardless of whether they are intelligent or even doable. The death of meritocracy within the aviation sector is pernicious and expanding to meet Social Justice goals.

Worse, it is nearly impossible to hold anyone accountable today. A fuselage plug fell out of a Boeing jet because someone forgot to put in the bolts that held the plug in place. People missed multiple installation and inspection protocols. Boeing’s Prime, Spirit Aerospace, who built the fuselage barrel, was the immediate culprit, but the fault flowed to Boeing because it was ultimately responsible. Boeing continues to hemorrhage money. As a result of internal culture changes, Boeing has already lost its dominant position against Europe’s Airbus, a position Boeing had held for nearly 100 years.