Airline industry experts can’t believe what they are hearing. Boeing is looking to recruit even more programmers from India to write code for their flight systems. This comes after the company saw billions in losses – and hundreds of people dead – in two separate crashes of their 737 Max jet, in which Boeing hired $9 per hour programmers to write code for the jet’s flight system.
In a March 17th Bloomberg article, Boeing confirmed plans to hire 1,000 employees from India over the coming year. This comes at the same time the company will be laying off 2,000 American workers.
If past is prologue, the future does not look good for the company – or the people who travel on their planes. The last time they forked over software development to foreign workers, it led to two separate crashes that killed 346 people and $18.4 billion in losses.
The flight-control system has been cited as the cause of the two crashes and experts say the physical design of the plane made the software system even more critical for control of the jet.
After decades of earning the trust of travelers and the US government, the company embarked on a new strategic focus in 1997, after the merger with McDonnell Douglas, that culminated in the 737 Max disaster.
“The culture shifted from that of “engineering” to that of “profit.” And that’s where the problem started,” wrote Josh Bersin, founder of Bersin & Associates, a research and advisory firm for corporate learning, talent management and HR.
But these decisions led to very real consequences to the 346 people who died in Ethiopia and Indonesia. The families have sued the company but, sadistically, Boeing is saying they are not on the hook for “pain and suffering” payments because everyone died instantly on the plane and didn’t have a chance to experience pain or suffering.
Seattle journalist Peter Robinson has been following the company for decades and his book documents the fall of a once-great company. He attributes the crashes – and the hundreds of deaths – to the company’s blind pursuit of profits.
With all of these questionable decisions being made by top executives, you have to wonder why they still have their jobs.
Shareholders sued the Boeing Board of Directors and, in 2022, they were forced to pay the company $237.5 million in damages and institute new organizational controls. Sadly, the Board continues to deny allegations of wrongdoing.
Officials in the US and other countries have approved the 737 Max for flying again in 2021 but many other countries are keeping the grounding order in place. The 737 Max jet was grounded for years, incurring huge losses for Boeing