Five years ago, travel website Kayak added a feature that allowed fliers to filter what sort of airplane they wanted — or didn’t. This was around the time that two Boeing 737 Max jets had crashed within six months of each other and the company’s reputation had sharply declined. Today, Kayak says 15 times as many people are choosing not to fly a 737 Max as they were in January, before a door on one of the planes blew out over Oregon. What the hell is going on here? Boeing is not some janky start-up, but a century-old company that revolutionized air travel. Aviation journalist Jeff Wise found the answer has less to do with mechanics and more to do with the corporate leaders who have over the past 30 years steadily sacrificed quality for profit. They seem prepared to keep doing it to the point where today’s Boeing may not survive. |
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—Justin Miller, deputy editor, Intelligencer |
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Photo-Illustration: Mark Harris; Photo Getty Images |
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