Flying Blind

Starred review from October 4, 2021
Bloomberg reporter Robison debuts with a chilling account of the corporate mismanagement and regulatory failures that led to the crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplanes and the deaths of 346 people in 2018 and 2019. According to Robison, Boeing underwent a cultural shift in the 1990s and early 2000s, abandoning its technically proficient and ethically transparent production culture in favor of a shareholder-focused structure in which safety took a back seat to profit. The new strategy of pursuing “more for less” guided Boeing’s redesign of the 737: to save time and money, technical complications were fixed with software solutions that pilots found difficult to troubleshoot, even though Boeing promised airlines the 737 MAX wouldn’t require additional pilot training. Robison highlights how the Clinton and Bush administrations’ restructuring of the FAA to adopt a more “customer service” approach to manufacturers allowed these and other issues to fly under the radar, until two crashes in the span of five months led to the grounding of the entire 737 MAX fleet for 20 months to make crucial fixes. Robison also profiles grieving family members who fought for a proper investigation into the crashes and successfully sued Boeing for damages. The result is a vital and enraging portrait of an avoidable tragedy.

October 1, 2021
For decades, Boeing was known as an engineering firm devoted to quality and safety. Then two 737 MAX crashes--Lion Air in Indonesia in 2018 followed by Ethiopian Airlines in 2019--laid bare the dramatic change in Boeing and the human costs of shareholder primacy. Bloomberg investigative journalist Robison offers a case study in organizational culture and the evolution of corporate America since the 1980s. In 1997, Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas, where GE CEO Jack Welch-style profit maximization reigned in stark contrast to Boeing's focus on transparency and quality. As leadership focused on increasing share price, more and more potential problems were ignored in favor of cost savings. Robison meticulously captures the decisions leading to the 737 MAX's release, including the lack of FAA oversight, that could have prevented the software overrides that caused the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. Robison highlights the racialized response of Boeing and the blame directed at the skilled, non-American pilots and smaller foreign airlines. A remarkable look at corporate culture's impact on consumer safety, Flying Blind is a captivating and unsettling portrait of Boeing and American business.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 15, 2021
Corporate malfeasance brings mayhem to the friendly skies in Bloombergcorrespondent Robison's revealing expos�. "Commercial aircraft are considered the world's premier expression of manufacturing excellence," writes the author, each plane involving the work of thousands of people. They are also made by massive and now near-monopolistic corporations whose fundamental duty, the ethos has it, is to maximize return to shareholders. There's built-in conflict in a culture of builders committed to safety as against a culture of bean counters committed to shaving every conceivable cost and getting rid of anyone who questions them. So it was with the Boeing 737 MAX, a passenger plane built on the framework of the lithe 737. The newly released aircraft immediately caused the deaths of 346 people, and the investigation of the two crashes involved revealed both that "software had overridden humans" and that the Federal Aviation Administration had essentially turned over its watchdog functions to Boeing itself. Meanwhile, owing to a merger with former rival McDonnell Douglas and its much different corporate culture, Boeing's executive ranks were filled with "skilled infighters" who displaced former executives less skilled in "the dark arts of corporate one-upmanship." The new company was headed by a CEO who'd come from General Electric and "frequently lectured people about how Boeing needed to be a 'team, ' not a 'family.' " The cancellation of orders of the 737 MAX after the accidents cost Boeing billions of dollars in lost sales. Even so, writes Robison in his rigorous investigative report, the aircraft "will likely become common in airline fleets over the next several years"--American airline fleets, that is. As the author notes, Boeing was fined $2.5 billion for criminal fraud after company pilots lied to the FAA about that software, and the company has recently suffered more from competition from international companies believed to offer safer aircraft. A damning, highly readable account of a once-great company brought to its knees by bad leadership.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from December 1, 2021

Robison, an investigative journalist for Bloomberg, writes a gripping tale about the demise of Boeing--the economic titan that was once a symbol of American business superiority. However, after two Boeing 737 Max jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing more than 300 people, research into the company exposed damning truths. Interviews with current and former Boeing employees reveal that saving the company money was more important than saving lives, and that FAA crash patterns were routinely ignored. It became clear that Boeing had a strong but dysfunctional corporate culture that valued the bottom line above all else and that the company never took ownership of its mistakes. As the author tells, pilots frequently had to make life-saving decisions by consulting binders of printed information to bypass complicated, frozen flight control systems--often while their planes were nosediving at 500 miles per hour. Equally unbelievable were the legal battles family members endured against Boeing to get justice and improve air safety. VERDICT Robison's fast-paced account serves as an excellent case study of business mismanagement. It should be read by air travel consumers and professionals alike and will have broad appeal as a story about the rise and fall of a historic business.--Caroline Geck, Somerset, NJ

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.