Former Boeing Managers Warn Flyers To Avoid 737 MAX Jets: ''Would Absolutely Not...''

Former high-level Boeing managers and engineers have warned flyers to avoid the airline's troubled 737 MAX 9 jets as the aircraft returns to service. ''I would absolutely not fly a MAX airplane. I've worked in the factory where they were built, and I saw the pressure employees were under to rush the planes out the door,'' one-time senior Boeing manager Ed Pierson told the Los Angeles Times.

Mr Pierson, who had advocated for grounding the planes even before the 2018 Lion Air crash, highlighted a study by his Foundation for Aviation Safety, revealing over 1,300 safety problem reports on Boeing's MAX 8 and MAX 9 planes filed with the FAA.

Joe Jacobsen, a former Boeing engineer with experience at the Federal Aviation Administration also issued a similar warning and said allowing the Max 9 to fly again was "premature." ''I would tell my family to avoid the MAX. I would tell everyone, really,'' Mr Jacobsen told the LA Times. 

He noted that he and other safety advocates have been sounding the alarm on numerous safety issues on both the MAX 8 and MAX 9 planes for years. Mr Jacobsen also cited a culture at Boeing that values "financial engineering instead of technical engineering."

Mr Pierson agreed with this, saying, ''This is a culture where money is everything. They measure success by how many airplanes are delivered, instead of how many quality airplanes are delivered. When you factor all of this together, it's just a disaster waiting to happen.''

These statements come after an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 MAX faced an emergency on January 6 after one of its doors blew open mid-air, minutes after take-off. The flight took off from Portland International Airport with 177 people on board and made an emergency landing in the state of Oregon. After the incident, Boeing's planes were temporarily grounded for a federal inspection. CEO David Calhoun acknowledged a ''quality escape,'' pledging that such incidents would not recur.

Meanwhile, Alaska Airlines gradually resumed flights last Friday after the Federal Aviation Administration announced a maintenance and inspection program to clear the MAX 9 to resume service. 

''Our team has worked diligently to help our customers restore their 737-9 airplanes for service. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) approved the detailed inspection protocol last Wednesday. Today, all 737-9 operators are safely returning their airplanes into service,'' Mr Calhoun said.

United also started flying its MAX 9 fleet Saturday morning, with a flight from Newark to Las Vegas.