Our values, after the family test

Boeing 737 MAX

Boeing sold the MAX as a 737 that pilots already knew, cheap to put on the line, trained in a computer course. In private messages later released by the company itself, staff asked whether they would put their families on a MAX trained that way, and answered no. Someone wrote that the airplane was designed by clowns, supervised by monkeys. Others treated extra simulator time as a threat to the order book. After the messages became public, Boeing said they did not reflect the company we are. That sentence is the last pair in this room. The depth layer is the Guardian excerpts, The Verge on the apology, and the Internet Archive PDF pack — which you can open in place.

Pair 1 of 4

Would you put your family on a MAX?

safety theater

Public

Boeing public safety line · 2017-2019

corporate communications

Statements around MAX certification and early operations

“The 737 MAX is a safe airplane. Safety is Boeing’s highest priority, and pilots can train for the MAX in a computer course rather than a full simulator.”

Private

Unnamed Boeing employee in company-released IMs · 2018-02-08

staff on the MAX program

Internal instant messages

“Honesty is the only way in this job — integrity when lives are on the line on the aircraft and training programs shouldn’t be taken with a pinch of salt. Would you put your family on a MAX simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn’t.”

The public register is certification and computer-based training. The private register is a family test. One of those is how engineers actually decide.

The tell · Ask whether the speaker would put their family on it. The pause is the preference.

How this became public: Boeing released hundreds of internal messages to Congress and the FAA, then to the press.

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Pair 2 of 4

Designed by clowns

safety theater

Public

Boeing · 2017

product marketing and certification story

MAX launch language

“The MAX was presented as a straightforward, well-understood 737 with more efficient engines — a plane airlines already knew how to fly.”

Private

Unnamed Boeing employee in company-released IMs · 2017-04

staff discussing flight-management work

Internal instant messages

“This airplane is designed by clowns, who in turn are supervised by monkeys.”

Ridicule is a private safety finding. It does not appear in the AFM. It appears when two people think the only audience is each other.

The tell · Contempt for the design, written before the crash, is not color. It is data.

How this became public: Company-released IM pack; Internet Archive OCR scan.

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Pair 3 of 4

Keep them out of the simulator

safety theater

Public

Boeing to customers and FAA · 2016-2018

training-difference story

MAX differences training campaign

“Boeing told airlines and regulators that MAX pilots could move from the NG with computer-based training, not a full-flight simulator.”

Private

Unnamed Boeing employees · 2016-2018

program staff

Internal messages in the released pack

“Messages discuss keeping regulators from requiring simulator time — including jokes about a “jedi mind trick” working on a regulator — because extra training would make the MAX harder to sell.”

The colorful lines are in the company-released pack hosted at the Internet Archive. We quote the move, not every epithet.

The public story is that the plane is close enough to its predecessor. The private constraint is cost and delivery. Safety theater is when the training requirement is treated as a sales problem.

The tell · If simulator time is discussed as a threat to the order book, the safety claim has a second job.

How this became public: Released to Congress, FAA, and then the press; IA PDF pack.

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Pair 4 of 4

Do not reflect the company we are

values after

Public

Boeing · 2020-01

corporate statement after the messages became public

Company statement

“These communications do not reflect the company we are and need to be, and they are completely unacceptable.”

Private

Unnamed Boeing employees · 2015-2018

staff on the MAX

Internal messages later released by the company

“Would you put your family on a MAX simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn’t. / This airplane is designed by clowns, who in turn are supervised by monkeys.”

After-the-fact values language is a second register, not a confession. It reassigns the private sentences to a few bad speakers so the public sentence can survive.

The tell · “Does not reflect who we are” arrives after the tape. It is not evidence about the tape.

How this became public: Statement issued the week Boeing released the messages.

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