Boeing dominates the airline industry with more than 10,000 built commercial jetliners in service worldwide and since the birth of the company on July 15, 1916, in Washington, USA, they have led the world in the aviation industry. However, recently, due to facing many issues, they have begun to fall down the list of aviation companies. Since the two fatal 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019, it has only gotten worse, with doors falling off planes, mechanical issues and much more. This has brought concern to many, including WJ students as they look ahead or look back on their school trips across the country.
There are two main explanations for Boeing’s issues. Firstly, since the pandemic, the company has lost nearly $12 billion due to travel limits. Extreme budget cuts made it hard to both fix issues and retain many skilled workers. The other main problem is that Boeing has decided to merge with McDonnell Douglas. With this change came a shift in priorities from an engineering focus to a finance focus.
WJ-led spring break trips, such as one to the United Kingdom, have been reintroduced after cancellations due to Covid. Many of the students were very excited about the trip, however, issues with the Boeing planes led to anxiety for students about flying across the globe.
“I’m already scared of flying, so after hearing about the issues, it certainly didn’t help the fear. But I have to travel to Europe quite often, so there’s no way of avoiding it,” senior Rachel Finn said.
While the issues did make some worried prior to their trip, other students were not aware of the issues at all.
“I hadn’t heard about it before my trip so it didn’t concern me when I was flying to and from Europe. However, after my trip, I did hear from my friends that the planes have been breaking down a lot recently and aren’t safe. I’m not really worried since it hasn’t been an issue with the airline I usually fly,” junior Anna Kotek said.
Even with all the issues Boeing is having, the chances of getting injured in a plane crash still remain very slim. The chances of getting in a car crash are only one in 336 whiles the odds of getting in a plane crash are less than one in 11 million.
“It doesn’t really make me feel any more nervous to fly and it didn’t really concern me while on the spring break trip because I still feel they are very rare and one-off issues. If they were to address it, I think they need to put money behind better manufacturing and checking every part in more detail,” senior Evan Geiss said.
