Tag: air travel

Boeing Pleads Guilty To Fraud As Effort To Bring Manufacturing In-House Proceeds With Acquisition Of Spirit Aerosystems

The story behind Boeing guilty plea today is the effort to bring its manufacturing futher ‘in-house’ after a disastrous focus on financial profitability, and not its core-competency – building airplanes.

The acquisition of ‘Spirit Aerosystems’, which made the door which failed during an Alaskan Airlines flight, and a major subcontractor for Boeing, continues.

Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a conspiracy fraud charge tied to the 737 Max crashes.

Under the deal, Boeing agreed to pay a $243.6 million fine and for an third-party monitor to be installed to monitor the company’s compliance, reported CNBC.

The deal spares Boeing from a trial just as the plane maker is trying to turn a corner in its safety and manufacturing crises.

The guilty plea would brand the planemaker a felon and could complicate its ability to sell products to the U.S. government. About 32% of Boeing’s nearly $78 billion in revenue last year came from its defense, space and security unit.

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Counterfeit Chinese Titanium Discovered In Some Boeing Jets, Per FAA

On Friday, the Financial Times reported that Boeing acknowledged some parts of their jets contain counterfeit titanium from China.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported that Boeing had told officials they had received titanium parts containing counterfeit documentation.

Boeing bought the counterfeit components from Kansas-based aerostructure manufacturer Spirit AeroSystems.

In the past, Spirit AeroSystems has had problems with quality issues.

The Financial Times reported Spirit AeroSystems received the titanium from China, where its documentation was reportedly falsified.

The FAA said in a statement, “Once we realized the counterfeit titanium made its way into the supply chain, we immediately contained all suspected parts to determine the scope of the issues.”

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Boeing faces 10 more whistleblowers after two die: ‘People’s lives are at stake’

The sky is falling — at least on Boeing.

A second whistleblower has died under mysterious circumstances, just two months after another one allegedly shot himself in the head — and the attorneys for both men hope their deaths don’t scare away the at least 10 other whistleblowers who want the company to clean up its act.

Joshua Dean, 45, a former quality auditor at Spirit AeroSystems which assembles fuselage sections for Boeing, died Tuesday morning from a fast-growing mystery infection.

Dean’s death comes less than two months after Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, 62, died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on March 9.

Barnett, who had worked for Boeing for 32 years, was found dead in his Dodge Ram truck holding a silver pistol in his hand in the parking lot of his South Carolina hotel after he failed to show up for the second part of his testimony for a bombshell lawsuit against the company.

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United Airline Pilots Know Safety Is An Serious Matter – Now The Public Knows

CDM has been covering United Airlines Covid-19 policies, and exposing its business plan, which financially incentivized covid 19 shots and then when that plan failed, Scott Kirby and the rest of management mandated the shots for all employees, but not for those based overseas. 

When employees filed for religious and medical exemptions when the covid-19 vaccinations were mandated, those who received exemptions were put on “indefinite unpaid leave,” meaning they had no pay checks, no health insurance, no medical insurance and no access to their 401(K) even for financial hardship. 

CMD has hosted two American Conversations with United Airline employees and other airline employees and even some alum who graduated from the Air Force Academy because United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby is an USAF alum. 

Today, one of our sources from another airlines gave us a heads up to a communication from one of United Airlines Pilot Association chapters on the east coast that made management so mad, it was retracted when it reached the C-Suite. 

We are disclosing it in full because it is in the public’s interest to regarding safety measures. 

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Boeing whistleblower found dead in US

A former Boeing employee known for raising concerns about the firm’s production standards has been found dead in the US.

John Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years, until his retirement in 2017.

In the days before his death, he had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company.

Boeing said it was saddened to hear of Mr Barnett’s passing. The Charleston County coroner confirmed his death to the BBC on Monday.

It said the 62-year-old had died from a “self-inflicted” wound on 9 March and police were investigating.

Mr Barnett had worked for the US plane giant for 32 years, until his retirement in 2017 on health grounds.

From 2010, he worked as a quality manager at the North Charleston plant making the 787 Dreamliner, a state-of-the-art airliner used mainly on long-haul routes.

In 2019, Mr Barnett told the BBC that under-pressure workers had been deliberately fitting sub-standard parts to aircraft on the production line.

He also said he had uncovered serious problems with oxygen systems, which could mean one in four breathing masks would not work in an emergency.

He said soon after starting work in South Carolina he had become concerned that the push to get new aircraft built meant the assembly process was rushed and safety was compromised, something the company denied.

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MH370’s suicidal pilot entombed plane and its 239 passengers at bottom of the ocean after perfect ditching, says flight expert 10 years after plane disappeared

The ‘suicidal’ pilot of the MH370 Malaysia Airlines flight perfectly ditched the plane into the sea, entombing it and the 239 passengers aboard at the bottom of the ocean, a flight expert has claimed ten years after it disappeared.

British pilot Simon Hardy has said he believes that the plane was sunk into the ocean at a spot that has never been searched before.

The Boeing 777 aircraft vanished from radar while en route from Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. Satellite data showed the plane deviated from its flight path to head over the southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.

There are fears that pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, was responsible for deliberately crashing MH370 in a murder-suicide of a shocking scale, which he committed because of problems in his personal life.

Shah had allegedly split with his wife Fizah Khan, and was said to be furious that a relative, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, had been given a five-year jail sentence for sodomy shortly before he boarded the plane for the flight to Beijing. But the pilot’s wife has angrily denied any personal problems, while other family members and friends said he was a devoted family man and loved his job.

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MH370 – the mystery that stunned the world: Ten years on, we look at the theories about what happened, the fight for a new search and the clues that hint equally at tragic accident.. or murder

Friday marks ten years since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished without a trace, tragically becoming one of the world’s great aviation mysteries.

The plane carrying 239 people bound for Beijing disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur.

Despite the largest search in aviation history, which combed 46,332 square miles of the sea floor of the southern Indian Ocean, only a few fragments of the Boeing 777-200ER plane have been found, scattered on beaches thousands of miles apart.

The operation was suspended in January 2017.

The families of those who were lost to the abyss have long hoped that by finding the missing plane, authorities would finally be able to give them an answer to the question that has haunted them for a decade: What happened to their loved ones?

In the years since, the void left by the missing wreckage has been filled by speculation and outlandish conspiracy theories, when the fact is that still – after ten years – no one alive today truly knows beyond reasonable doubt what happened.

Hopes were once again raised this week that the question could be answered with the announcement that Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim would be ‘happy to reopen’ the search if ‘compelling’ evidence emerged.

This came after Texas robotics firm Ocean Infinity said it had proposed a new search for the missing jetliner to the Malaysian government while claiming to have new evidence – six years after carrying out an unsuccessful search in 2018.

While it remains to be seen whether a new search will unearth any new clues, the families of the victims remain in limbo. Today, as they mark 10 years since their loved ones were lost, MailOnline looks back at the MH370 tragedy.

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TSA Launches “Invasive” Pat-Downs With “More Intimate Contact Than Before”

As a result of a study, which found that weapons routinely make it past airport security, the TSA is introducing “more rigorous” and “comprehensive” physical inspections at airports around the country, according to Bloomberg. The security agency, which until now had the option of using five different types of physical pat-downs in the screening line, is eliminating the “options” and replacing them with a single, universal method which would involve heavier groping.

The Transportation Security Administration made the announcement to its agents this week, and in the case of Denver International Airport employees, advised employees and flight crews on Thursday that the “more rigorous” searches “will be more thorough and may involve an officer making more intimate contact than before.”

In an ominous warning, TSA spokesman Bruce Anderson told Bloomberg that “people who in the past would have gotten a pat-down that wasn’t involved will notice that the [new] pat-down is more involved.” The shift from the previous, risk-based assessment on which pat-down procedure an officer should apply was phased in over the past two weeks after tests at smaller airports. In their notice, Denver airport officials said employees are subject to search at random locations: “If a pat down is required as part of the operation, badged employees will be required to comply with a TSA officer’s request to conduct a full body pat down.”

The new policy will also apply to pilots and flight attendants, classified as “known crewmembers” who generally receive less scrutiny at checkpoints. The TSA conducts occasional random searches of these employees, and airlines this week inquired as to whether their employees would be subject to more frequent pat-downs. The number of random searches for airline crews isn’t changing and will remain a “very small percentage” of the total, Anderson said. But airport employees may face more random checks.

Anyone who declines use of the TSA’s existing conventional scanner screen will be subject to the new pat-down. The TSA currently screens about 2 million people daily at U.S. airports. The agency doesn’t track how many passengers are subject to pat-down searches after they pass through an imaging scanner.

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Plus size travel influencer Jaelynn Chaney says she’s working with a US SENATOR to try and get fat flyers free extra plane seats – after admitting slimmer passengers may foot the bill

A 25-year-old plus-sized influencer claims she is working with a US Senator to provide overweight passengers with free airplane seats to accommodate their size. 

Jaelynn Chaney, a travel and lifestyle creator, initially ignited controversy when she demanded the Federal Aviation Authority and airlines give overweight flyers as many free seats as they require to fly comfortably. 

She also insisted that airlines refund overweight passengers for any extra seats they’re forced to purchase and admitted ticket prices would rise for slim passengers. 

In an effort to further her cause, Chaney released a TikTok video claiming that she has been ‘meeting with the team of a prominent Senator in the United States’. 

She did not clarify which Senator she had allegedly met. 

In the clip, she says: ‘Lately, I have been reaching out to stakeholders who can help us make progress and make change in the travel industry. 

‘This has included meeting with the team of a prominent Senator in the United States.’

According to Chaney’s Instagram page, she follows Senator Maria Cantwell along with Senator Patty Murray from Washington and Senator Tammy Duckworth from Illinois. 

DailyMail.com has approached Cantwell, Murray and Duckworth for comment. 

Chaney also claims she has been in contact with airline representatives about the issue. 

Apart from allegedly speaking with senators, she has released a petition for her cause and shared videos on her struggle. 

‘As plus-size travelers, my partner and I have unfortunately experienced discrimination and discomfort while flying,’ she wrote in her petition, which has been signed by around 38,354 and has a goal set at 50,000. 

She added: ‘All plus-size passengers should be provided with an extra free seat, or even two or three seats depending on their size, to accommodate their needs and ensure their comfort during the flight.’

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Air Marshals National Council Director STUNS Fox News Host When She Reveals Marshalls Are Quietly Following Every Person Who Flew to DC Around January 6, 2021

Sonya Labosco, Director of the Air Marshalls National Council said Air Marshalls are quietly following Americans who flew into the DC area around January 6, 2021.

Labosco said Air Marshalls are no longer going after terrorists or the bad guys because they are now stalking and following every single person who flew into the DC area around January 2021 even if they did not go to the US Capitol.

“We’re not flying right now. The only missions that we are doing are ‘Quiet Skies’ missions and those are missions that are following the January 2021 people,” Labosco said. “So we’re either on the border for illegal immigrants or we’re following folks from January 2021. We’re not doing our regular missions where we’re out there looking for the bad guys so for now most flights you’re not gonna have Air Marshalls.”

The Fox News host was stunned: “What do you mean that you’re following January 2021 people? What does that mean?

Labosco said their primary mission is to stalk every single person who flew into the DC area even if they never went to the Capitol and were never charged with any crimes.

“That means our primary mission is a little group called ‘quiet skies’ – it’s a mission called quiet skies that we’re following people that flew into the national capital region in January 2021 and they did not have to go to the Capitol or the rally and you’ve been put on a specific list that TSA has now assigned Air Marshalls to follow these people who have not had any type of criminal investigation – they haven’t committed a crime, but yet three years later we are following the same individuals day in and day out,” Labosco said.

The Fox News host asked Labosco, “So you’re saying the [Air Marshalls] aren’t…tracking terrorists at all?”

“Well, they didn’t even have to be at the Capitol…they could have just flown into the capital region so anyone who was there for a job interview or to visit family. We even have a gentleman who was there for a funeral. They’ve been put on this domestic terrorist list just because of their geographic location to Washington DC,” Labosco said.

The Fox News host was in shock as Labosco said Air Marshalls have been following the same innocent people for three years even though they have never committed a crime.

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