AND MORE “MACK DADDY PROBLEMS” AT COMPANY’S S.C. FACILITY …
An Air India flight headed from New Delhi to Melbourne, Australia was forced to land in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this week after experiencing the loss of all three of its navigational computers.
“The cockpit software system went blank,” Indian television station IBN Live reported. “The flight landed without any navigation aid.”
Ruh-roh.
And yes, the plane in question was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner – although it’s not yet clear whether it was one of the planes manufactured at the company’s troubled North Charleston, S.C. facility.
“We are aware of the in-service incident and are working with Air India to provide support,” Boeing said in a statement.
Boeing’s Air India fleet has been “particularly trouble prone,” according to the website Quartz.com.
“The planes has 136 ‘minor technical snags’ between September, 2012 and November, 2013, according to India’s civil aviation minister,” the website reports.
S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley and other status quo-supporting South Carolina politicians have bet big on Boeing and its Dreamliner – which continues to experience all sorts of problems in the wake of its global grounding for three months last year.
South Carolina’s plant has had its share of issues, too – as first reported by FITS back in November.
These problems are now being picked up by the mainstream media.
“Since late last year, Boeing 787 Dreamliner fuselage sections from North Charleston, S.C., have arrived at the Everett final assembly line seriously incomplete with wiring and hydraulics lines missing,” The Seattle Times reported earlier this week. “The poorly done work out of Charleston threatens to undermine the company’s plans to deliver 10 Dreamliners a month and fulfill the much-delayed jet program’s original promise.”
Allegedly, Charleston is shipping incomplete planes to Everett so the plant can claim to have met its production quotas.
According to The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier, Boeing was supposed to respond to those reports today “after two days of no response to multiple requests for an interview.”
Yikes …
89 comments
Boy, seems like SC managers for Boeing are as effective as Nikki’s management of the state (and the legislature). You start seeing this trend – doncha? I wonder if ability had anything to do with Chase pulling out of Florence.
News flash for Rocky. The Chase pull out is a result of the decrease in refinance applications.
That and their employees couldn’t stand living in South Carolina.
Or couldn’t spell Refinance.
Remind us all why you moved here.
The Seattle Times, to no surprise, implies that had union workers assembled the fuselage sections this would not occurred.They are still pissed that Boeing has opened a non union plant in SC. Such “minor” things seem to escape Sic Willie.
I suppose that Sic Willie will now tell us that Boeing just awarded up to 18 days pay as a bonus to full time workers for their “poor” performance. Just think, according to Sic Willie “logic”, how much they would have received for “good” performance.
Guy … the Boeing production problems in North Charleston we exclusively reported on last November were followed up by CNBC in January. Seattle Times is actually LATE to the party, but hey … whatever makes you feel better.
What? Sic Willie now hangs his hat on MSM? Wonders will never cease.
Stop seeing everything as politics. There are real problems at that plant. “Mystery” holes that appear in bulkheads, for example. I’ve heard from one guy at the plant that some managers hint that they want the union to move in. Then they’d have someone to blame! Maybe that would make you happy too.
OK, its not politics. Ever since Haley closed her legs to Sic Willie he has opposed everything she does. She supports the Boeing deal so he doesn’t. Happy now?
I am sure your “credible” inside info is accurate. Bet you could find a malcontent at any other SC manufacturing plant who would complain.
HUZZAH! A plane almost crashed that was built in South Carolina! So happy to trash stuff people in SC do to prove how much I love SC.
More to trash Boeing for hiring the bottom of the labor heap to build their planes. Rather than have experienced union labor build their aircraft they chose to go cheap and now they are paying for it. You get what you pay for and hiring unskilled, uneducated workers to build complex aircraft is going to end up getting lots of people killed and could bankrupt Boeing.
But hey the fat cats get their bonuses and that is what matters in the short run!
Please list exactly what training the workers did NOT receive? OK, times up.
An apprenticeship with skilled workers before being line qualified.
and how does that compare to the training program at Everett? What FAA inspections are performed and how did all the alleged errors pass by them?
Ignore him, he’s the village idiot who can’t even find a job- talking about what makes a “skilled worker”. That should tell you everything.
Weird. I get paychecks from an employer but don’t have a job. Please don’t tell them.
and your jobs in manufacturing are/were?
Did you mean to respond to johnq?
If not, I have no idea what you mean, I never accused you of not having a job. Johnq is the one without a job.
Please accept my apologies.
None needed, it was simply a misunderstanding.
Union Labor? Lazy, sit under the tree waiting for a paycheck workers over motivated, happy to have a good job work force?
Motivation only lasts so long when your paycheck sucks. Boeing has some techs on the flight line who are truly great at what they do. They fix the problems coming off the other two lines. Unfortunately these good workers are paid about the same as the bad ones. Wait, non-union plants are supposed to let the best workers excel and earn far more than their lazy counterparts! Sure… When a company is concerned with cheap labor, they ain’t gonna reward anyone who’s blue collar.
So the Boeing bonuses did not happen?
Motivation only lasts so long when your paycheck sucks
——–
It flags when you’re making 3 million dollars a year and your taxes increase by 10% to return to previous tax rates, too, apparently… and just to spite the government for even *contemplating* such a thing, they refuse to create jobs, or produce a quality product.
That why we need government to take over Boeing and fix it.
That why we need government to take over Boeing and fix it.
——
Good luck with that, genius!
So how do we fix Boeing?
vote for Sarah Palin – she’ll lay hands on it.
Can’t Obama fix it?
We need RINOs and teapartiers to fix it… like Bush did.
I bet you have never worked in a unionized manufacturing facility in your life. Let me guess you mourned the loss of mill villages, company stores, and one room school houses where they taught 6 year olds to work second shift.
See what happens when you have government run incentive plans to get high tech jobs for low tech workers.
#FAIL
Remind us why you aren’t employed again.
Having worked half my life for a large multinational corp. I will put SC workers up against any others anywhere with the same training and experience. That is the key. Training and experience. It takes time to gain the experience that turns a good job into a great job. The techs who quality check the line workers undoubtly need further training . Along the same line I have worked union and nonunion. Most of the time union workers are more interested in the off times than in work. I was an assistant shop steward for a while and spent most of my time “protecting” sorry workers from their just firings. As time passes things will even out.
Don’t you yet understand that real life work experiences are not welcome here?
I guess that is a result of the 58% employment number. 42% sit around and do this.
“…..plane has….minor technical snags”
I don’t fly but if I did, issues such as battery fires, loss of navigation, fuselage panel falling off, a cracked windshield, transponder failure causing a communications problem, etc. would give me cause to drive, walk, swim, stay home – anything to stay off one of these planes
Then you will never fly in any plane. They ALL have issues that periodically occur. It is the frequency that counts. What is the “ready to fly” rate for a 787? >97%.
97% is a terrible figure. That means 3 out of 100 planes cannot take off because they are deemed unsafe to fly. Nice.
So what the rate for other planes?
Unsafe? Is that what it means? Apparently you have never flown and seen what chicken shit reasons that airlines come up with not to fly when they have underloaded aircraft.
Boeing says it wants the rate to be over 99%. It admits that the 787 isn’t reliable enough. Maybe one day it will be. It’s not yet.
Agreed, but per Sic Willie, he expects them to be falling out of the sky left and right. Isn’t that his message? It’s those damn incentives. The state of Washington gives incentives to Boeing and he doesn’t worry about their union assembled planes. Its also those damn non unionized, government-run school educated SC workers.
Ink, Shifty is more concerned with the 3 out 100 that may not be able to LAND………..
Last I read, industry standard for non-critical failure was around around 1/3 of 1%…..
If 97% was the current industry rate, planes would be dropping out of the sky every day. lol
Good comment!
Reading comprehension. ready TO FLY.
No new plane achieves 99% in one year of operation. So this will take time as airlines around the world adjust to the 787 operations.
Topping the hill with the needle kissing seventy. Haven’t flown and don’t see any reason to start now.
True, there may be other planes with similar “minor” flaws but given the publicity that this plane has received I would walk away from it rather than get on it
At 70 I understand your worries. At only 23, I know the difference between the advances of the 787 and previous aircraft, you’re most likely to die in older planes than new ones.
So i’ll take a 787 anytime.
Which plane model do you know that hasn’t faced those same problems???
Which plane model do you know that hasn’t faced those same problems???
They don’t let drunk old farts on flights, so it a moot issue Jimmy boy.
Too bad but then they allow POS’s to post comments
Sounds a little like the union boys and girls in Everett are trash talking the right to workers in SC.
Sounds baseless to me, until they provide documentation, which should be easy to do, if their allegations are true.
The IBN story sounds a little on the fishy side, too.
Bingo!
You obviously don’t know anybody who works at Boeing S.C. The mishaps and problems at that plant are common knowledge to the people who work there. It has nothing to do with union trash-talk. It has more to do with the local media refusing to investigate anything that makes Boeing look even slightly bad,
Provide the evidence, my friend. Aircraft assembly is documented out the ying-yang.
Put up or shut up, in the vernacular of the street.
Why do you think there’s no evidence? There was plenty of evidence offered in that Seattle Times story.
The Seattle Times, which of course has no ulterior motive.
So there was no evidence, but plenty of evidence?
I’d trust private business over unions any day. There’s just something about a million dollar salary and stock options that say “trustworthy.”
“A man with a family just barely able to put food on his table, pay the mortgage and send his kids to college seems shifty to me.”
I say let him design the planes!
The CEO?
http://www.roadkilltshirts.com/Assets/ProductImages/PS_0749W_JUDGE_MISTAKES.jpg
Boeing has not flatly denied the charges of incomplete work in Charleston and has admitted that they will have to rehire contract labor to correct manufacturing problems.
They have not denied kidnapping the Lindbergh baby either. Go back and read why the contract workers will be rehired. It does not say what you allege.
According to the Wall Street Journal it does: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304856504579337103478813922
I don’t have an on line subscription so the link would not let me read more than a couple of sentences. Sorry. The hiring of temp workers is to help get the assembly line running better not to correct shoddy work. Once performance improves guess what happens to the temp workers.
Tank you berry mooch for to be calling the 787 support hotline, we looking very forward to be helping you with your problem. To begin push 1 for technical supporting, push 2 for warranty issueing, push 3 for product to be registering for technical supporting and warranty issuing, push 4 for all other considerations.
Tinking you berry mooch, all of our experiencing service providers are experience unusually calling volumes, please be holding for the next technically supporting person on the calling.
In the meantime while waiting, have you been turning off your navigating system and turning it backing on? Have you installed the latest updating to the navigating system? Please try these simple steps while we are holding to provide your servicing.
This is Pradeep, I am to be helping you today. Can you please tell me the serial number of your navigating system while I am working to solve you. If you do not have the serial numbering please provide your registration acknowledging number which can be found in the emailings we sent to you when you registered your navigating system. If you do not have these numberings, please find them and be calling again when we can be helping you. Tank you berry mooch, it is a great day for to being in Mumbai!
One thing FITSNews didn’t mention is that the FAA is launching an audit of Boeing’s factories, including Charleston. You can read more about it at All Things 787 at http://nyc787.blogspot.com/ .
Quoting from that blog, “Sources described the production of the mid body fuselage section built
in building 88-20 as “a complete disaster, a cluster fuck.” This is a
very worrying development to Charleston workers as some of them feel
that the FAA may shut them down because of issues the audit may uncover.”
By the way, All Things 787 is a very pro-Boeing blog. It is far from being a pro-union or Charleston-bashing place.
“Sources” Those mysterious voices that have all the “facts” but are never identified nor are they going to be required to produce evidence. I presume “cluster fuck” is a FAA term that they use in their reports.
Good luck finding current employees who will go public with their inside information. Boeing refuses to share any information about problems at the plant.
Refuses to share with who? You mean a private, free enterprise entity won’t give away information on the inter-workings of its company to just anyone who walks in off the street? Shocking!
That’s just one more reason to trust private business with our infrastructure!
So you want facts but you’re okay that Boeing doesn’t supply any? This FAA audit is the first one Charleston has ever undergone. Hopefully the FAA is a trustworthy enough source for you.
OH NO! The blog has updates! Seems the audit is NOT Charleston ALONE nor was it recently scheduled.
Had to run out and check inside the door of my BMW. Whew!! Fortunately it was made in Germany, not SC.
Here’s some reality: bonuses are paid company wide, for delivery for instance. Charleston just falls in one of ?the categories. They only delivered 3 a/c in ?the last 5 months of ?the year. They are supposed to do 3 a month. Everett had to step up and do extra work to deliver ?the Charleston obligation since they couldn’t. Now Boeing has increased delivery to 10 a month and Charleston is not ready, so again Everett has to make ?the obligation. All planes are not inspected by ?the FAA, Boeing operates under a production certificate so they don’t have to inspect every A/C. Lose that certificate and ?the FAA has to inspect EVERYTHING. they would be able to deliver about one plane every 2 months or so if that happens. It looks at this point that charlestons cert is in suspension, which explains why everything is being sent to Everett to be fixed or finished. This is a bad thing. Which is why I assume Boeing has been mute. And they’re not a private company they’re a publicly traded company. Let’s hope those Everett men and women can save this situation again….task tsk
Are you a shop steward in Everett? You sound like it.
“everything in being sent to Everett to be fixed or finished.” What exactly is “everything”?
I thought South Carolina was the solution, not the problem.
Theoretically yes. But, when you have an unskilled workforce in South Carolina and have to bring in contract labor and mechanics and engineers from Everett, Washington to fix the mistakes the SC workers make then the alleged solution becomes the problem in a big way.
Is this the same unskilled work force that currently assembles BMWs and in years past assembled nuclear missiles and refueled submarine reactors?
Ever lived outside SC ?
Too much trust in a 150 year old tradition. See other states that have it going on. Clue; Not SC.
They drink mint juleps in the shade all day?
WOW! BA stock probably crashed today; ah, let me check that. HMmmm, up $4.35 (4.55%). I’d say “The Market” didn’t find this story to be significant, unless you think this was a positive Boeing story! ;-)
Given a choice, I will opt for my bud’s 1946 Luskim, only 65 hp, but it flutters to the ground in a very shallow glide.
Now that we have Boeing here, the trick is to pair a skilled, efficient, non-union workforce that actually manufactures components instead of assembling out of state manufactured components. Takes a Governor that can think forward in the big picture in lieu of a Governor that thinks what she is told to think by Captain Wonderful. You were elected, honey, not him. Get some people around you that can give you valid info/facts then ram your vetted/proven ideas through the GA using politics.
Looks like Boeing Company deliberately and intentionally built this state of the art Aircraft called Dreamliner 787. The Aircraft has become a pain for the Airlines who have inducted it in their Airlines .One problem after another and that gives extra revenue to boeing company in terms of spare parts and service.This should be taught a lesson provided all airlines switch over to Airbus aircraft.
Good article about Boeing’s issues from Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/11/us-boeing-dreamliner-idUSBREA1A06T20140211
Workers in Charleston are being told to put down their tools and send uncompleted the parts down the line so Boeing can say the production rate is being met.