The Boeing 737 Max

From Tokyo, Japan and Auckland, New Zealand, this is Down to Business English, with your hosts Git Montreau and Samantha Vega.

Don't worry, Skip. I knew you and Des were busy working hard to get as many D two V episodes out before he upended his life in the UAE and moved back to the UK.

Mm, that's right. The UAE is now in his rear view mirror and he's getting set up somewhere in Scotland or Northern England. I'm not quite sure where. Anyway, he will be out of action for a bit. So I guess it's To you and I.

Sounds good. I won't be going anywhere. In the next few months, stay in foot right here in New Zealand.

Well I might be making a

I'm not all that cranked up about it

And why's that? Do you think by September it'll be too cold for you?

No, it's not the weather. Actually, this is a little embarrassing. But it seems the older I get, the more afraid I am becoming of getting on an airplane.

No way. You don't seem to come across as the type who's afraid of flying.

Oh no, I'm not afraid of flying. I'm afraid of getting on an airplane and putting my life in the hands of a transportation system that is totally out of my control.

Well, international air travel does have a lot of moving parts. Designing and manufacturing the aircraft, training pilots and crew, air traffic control systems, the list goes on.

people involved. A mistake on any level can lead to a disaster.

True. But at the same time, it does have a lot of checks in place to make sure accidents don't happen.

I know. And for the most part, everything is very effective.

I'd say it's ninety nine point nine nine nine percent effective. After all, traveling by air still is the safest way to travel. But you're right, it's not impervious to error.

And a good example would be the situation surrounding Boeing's 737 Max.

That's a pretty scary example. And Boeing is sure paying a stiff price for their mistake.

A classic example of what can go wrong when you don't have the right balance and check. Between business pressure and government regulations.

Is that our story topic for today?

It is.

Sounds interesting.

So let's do it. B2B, down to business with the Boeing 737 Max. How did pressure in a competitive marketplace lead to two catastrophic airline disasters?

So let's start with those two air disasters. They were both such tragic events.

They were. The first one took place in October last year. A Lion air flight crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta.

A hundred and eighty nine people lost their lives in that crash.

Sadly yes. And another one hundred and fifty seven souls were lost five months later when an Ethiopian Airlines seven hundred thirty seven Max crashed, again shortly after takeoff, from Addis Ababa Airport, en route to Nairobi, Kenya.

And both crashes were the result of the same issue. A design problem in the Boeing seven thirty seven Max?

That is what has come to light from investigations.

That is just terrible and quite frightening. I've always been under the impression that Boeing seven hundred thirty seven had a solid flight safety record.

It does. It's been flying the commercial skies for over three decades and is a mainstay of the single aisle aircraft market. If you've done any kind of commercial flying in your life, the chances are quite high that you have flown on some variant of the 737.

But the seven thirty seven Max variant is only five months old. And something went very wrong in its development. What can you tell us about that?

Well, to fully understand the story, you need to go back to twenty ten when Boeing was caught flat footed by their main competitor Airbus flat foot.

What happened?

Airbus unveiled their A three hundred and twenty Neo. NEO stands for New Engine Option, and basically with these new engines, Airbus was promising airlines the same aircraft as the A three hundred twenty, but with six percent more fuel efficiency.

And the A three twenty is a direct competitor to the seven thirty seven.

That's right, Lord.

And being six percent more fuel efficient meant huge savings for any airline who purchased an A three hundred twenty NEO. That's quite a threat to Boeing.

Right again.

What kind of numbers are we talking about in terms of savings?

Well, take Southwest Airlines for example. Last year in twenty eighteen, their fleet of seven hundred thirty sevens burned through nine point eight billion liters of fuel. A six percent increase in fuel efficiency would translate to around two hundred and fifty million dollars.

Wow. And in an industry where profit margins are so thin, two hundred and fifty million would be a windfall.

Airlines loved it. At the 2011 Paris Air Show, over the course of a week, Airbus sold 667 A320 Neil. That's more orders than Boeing had for their seven hundred thirty sevens for the entire year of twenty ten.

I imagine their heads were spinning in Boeing's boardroom.

But they went into full blown crisis mode when they discovered one of their biggest and oldest customers, American Airlines, was about to place an order for hundreds of new aircraft with Airbus.

Really? That would have been a devastating blow to Boeing to lose a contract like that.

And that is what pushed Boeing to promise American Airlines a new version of the seven hundred thirty seven within six years, and they promised it would be eight percent more fuel efficient.

And that was the beginning of the Boeing seven hundred thirty seven Max.

It was.

I'm no engineer, but I would venture to guess that delivering on those promises in as little as six years would be a daunting task.

Absolutely. But by revamping the 737, opposed to designing an entirely new aircraft, Boeing could speed up the process. They could use existing technology, and they avoided the slow certification process to get the aircraft approved by the government.

Really? They didn't need to get it certified?

Not to the extent a new aircraft would need to be certified.

That's a little hard to hear.

And even more unbelievable is that since the 737 Max was not technically a new airplane, pilots didn't need to go through expensive simulation training.

Oh my goodness, really?

Really?

Any pilot certified on an older 737 could simply watch a two and a half hour training video and they were good to go.

Well, I suppose if the seven thirty seven Max was similar to previous versions, it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

But that's just it. Even though there were many similarities, in order to achieve the promised eight percent improvement in fuel efficiency, Boeing had to use totally new and much larger engines.

How did that change things?

The larger engine didn't fit on the aircraft in the same place as the older engines. So designers had to move them forward and a little higher up on the wings. But that in turn created an aerodynamics issue. And under some flying conditions, specifically when the aircraft was in a steep climb, the engines caused extra lift. Which could lead to a stall.

Oh a stall. The engines would stop working?

N no, an aerodynamic stall. That is when the airflow doesn't move across the wings properly, and the airplane, in essence, just falls out of the sky. It is the number one issue pilots train for.

See. What did Boeing do to deal with this engineering problem?

Well, they didn't want to redesign the airplane because one, they would never be able to deliver on time, and two, it would lead to certification problems. So, they came up with a software solution.

A software solution? How can a computer program stop an airplane from falling out of the sky?

It was called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS for short.

That is a mouthful. And what does it do?

MCAST takes data from sensors that measure the angle at which the seven hundred thirty seven is climbing. If the angle is too great or if the computer thought that the plane was in danger of going into a stall, The software would push the nose down and

A computer would take over from the pilots?

Yes, and that is what went wrong in both seven hundred seven max crashes. Just after takeoff, something went wrong with the MCAS system. Even though the aircraft was flying properly, MCAST detected that it was climbing too quickly and started pushing the nose down. No, they couldn't. They didn't even know that MCAS existed. They had no idea what they were fighting.

So let me get this straight. Boeing, in an attempt to stay competitive with Airbus, tried to update their seven hundred thirty seven. And in order to do so, they cut corners to avoid expensive testing and development. Along the way they ran into design engineering issues, which they compensated for through computer software. But they didn't tell the pilots about this software, so when it malfunctioned, pilots had no idea how to deal with it.

Yep, that's about it.

Wah, that is just unimaginable.

I know. It's horrifying.

This all sounds so negligent on Boeing's part. I hope they pay dearly for this.

They already are. After the Ethiopian crash last March, 737 Maxes were grounded and remain grounded to this day worldwide. Most of the airlines who had planes on order have canceled those orders, and Boeing needs to compensate the airlines who have new planes sitting on the ground. In fact, they just announced that they expect to pay around five billion dollars to their customers for this.

And what about the families of all the victims? How are they being compensated?

Boeing has set up a hundred million dollar fund that will go towards the families of the victims. It isn't. It's less than the purchase price of one seven hundred thirty seven Max. But I'm sure that families are taking the company to court and will get further compensation.

Whatever they get, it won't replace the loss of loved ones.

No it won't.

This is such a tragic story on so many levels, but

It is. But before we depress our listeners too much, why don't we get D2V?

Down to business English audio scripts are a great learning tool. Be sure to visit the D2B website and download your free audio script of today's podcast. Down to businessenglish.com. That's www.down to businessenglish.com.

Our first word for D2V today is the adjective to be impervious. When you say that you are impervious to something, you are communicating that you are not affected or not bothered by it.

In the story, Samantha used impervious in the negative, so she was communicating the opposite. She commented that even though air travel is the safest way to travel, it is not impervious to error.

In other words, air travel can be affected by error. Can you give us another example using impervious skip?

Sure. In business, there are many things to consider when making a decision. Market conditions, foreign exchange rates, the competition, the list goes on and on.

Right. Business leaders need to make decisions that are best for the company, even if they personally don't agree with it.

This is commonly referred to as making the hard decision. And it is why top business leaders are paid the big buck. They are capable of being impervious to their personal feelings and don't let them influence their business decisions.

Nice example. What's our next word?

Next, let's talk about the idiom to come to light. When you say something comes to light, you are saying it is revealed or discovered.

In the story, Skip said that it came to light that the cause of both the Lion Air and the Ethiopian Airlines crashes were the same faulty software.

So, to put it another way, it was discovered that the crashes were both caused by the same defective software.

Did you hear the news about the most recent iOS security bug on iPhones and iPads?

I was reading a little bit about it, but I don't know all the details.

Well, it has come to light that there is a security vulnerability in the Contacts app that was built into the iOS. It affects every version from iOS 8 to 13. And what is even more surprising is that Apple knew about this vulnerability for over four years and didn't do anything about it.

Yikes. That is terrible. Well, I had better take a closer look at that.

Me too. I don't want to be caught flat-footed if my iPhone is hacked.

No, you certainly don't want to be caught flat-footed. And to be caught flat-footed is our next word.

It is. To be caught flat-footed means to be unprepared. This expression actually is a sports idiom. In a lot of sports, players need to be on their toes, ready to act. If they are caught flat footed, they are not ready.

Makes sense.

In the story, Skip mentioned that Boeing was caught flat footed when Airbus announced their fuel efficient A three twenty Neo. In other words, Boeing was unprepared or not expecting this level of competition from Airbus.

It seems the Hong Kong government has been caught flat-footed with the recent protests in that city. They just don't seem prepared to deal with an angry citizenry.

Oh yes, that situation is getting more and more serious. I hope it doesn't grow completely out of control.

We will see, but it doesn't look good.

What is our next word?

Next is the noun windfall. A windfall is a large amount of money that you win or receive unexpectedly. In the story, Samantha commented that it would be a windfall for an airline to save$250 million by purchasing the fuel-efficient Airbus A320 NEO.

It really would be like winning a lottery.

No doubt. Samantha, can you give us another example using we All in a business contact?

Recently, FedEx, the global courier company, announced it was not renewing its contract with Amazon in the US.

Really? I missed that headline. That's a pretty big business news story.

Well, FedEx and Amazon said the split was a mutual decision, but the bottom line is that this will be a windfall for other courier companies in the U.S. Someone needs to deliver all those Amazon packages for the holidays.

Great example. Here's another one. My next poker game is coming up in a few days. I hope it is a windfall for me.

Good luck with that.

Thanks. Do we have another word for D2V?

We do. Our final word today is the adjective to be daunting. When a task or project is described as daunting, it means that you are quite worried or anxious as to how it will be completed. In the story I commented that coming up with a competitive aircraft to the Airbus A320 NEO would be a daunting task for Boeing.

In other words, Boeing was quite worried, even scared of accomplishing that.

Precisely.

Do you know what I find daunting, Samantha?

No skip, what's that?

Grading my university students. This year I have over 120 students who need to be graded. And it is a long and painful process. Absolutely no room for error.

That does sound daunting. When is the deadline?

Not for a couple of weeks, so if I get started soon, it should be

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Thanks for that report on the situation around the Boeing 737 Max skip. It's such a tragic story and I hope that there's some real ramifications for those responsible.

I am sure there will be. In addition to the huge business losses for the company, the FBI in the U.S. has opened a criminal investigation. I think someone may be going to jail over this in the end.

Well, if evidence of criminal responsibility comes to light, someone should go to jail.

I agree. Have to wait and see.

I guess so.

Well, I won't keep you too much longer, but just before we finish today, I would like to remind all of our listeners to sign up for a D. membership.

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Thanks for listening everyone. See you next time.

Take care.

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