On Tuesday, Boeing’s president and chief executive Dave Calhoun said the firm was “acknowledging our mistake”.
The door “plug” which fell away from the aircraft weighed 27kg (60lb) and was used to fill an emergency exit that was built into the plane, but not required by Alaska Airlines.
The missing section of the plane was retrieved from the back garden of a Portland teacher, according to the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Speaking to Boeing staff, Mr Calhoun said: “We’re going to approach this number one acknowledging our mistake. We’re going to approach it with 100% and complete transparency every step of the way.”
Mr Calhoun reassured staff that Boeing would work with the NTSB to investigate the cause of the accident.
“Well that’s not too typical, I’d like to point that out,” Calhoun tried to explain.
“How is it untypical?” Asked Dawe
“Well there are a lot of these planes going around the world all the time and very seldom does anything like this happen. I don’t want people to think planes aren’t safe.” replied Calhoun
“Was this plane safe?” Dawe continued
“Well I was thinking more about the other ones.”
“The ones that are safe?”
“The ones where the doors don’t fall off.”
“If this one wasn’t safe, why was it flying around at tens of thousands of feet?”
“I’m not saying it wasn’t safe. It just perhaps isn’t quite as safe as the other ones.”
“Why?” Dawe said with a puzzled expression.
“Well some of them are built so that the doors don’t fall off at all.”
“Wasn’t this one built so that the doors wouldn’t fall off?”
“Obviously not.”
“How do you know?”
“Well, because the door fell out!” Calhoun, starting to sound a little exasperated.
-The Original, for those who may not be 50 years old
“Well there are regulations governing the materials that they can be made of”
“What materials?”
“Well wood glue is out, and no wood glue derivatives”
“No insulation foam or glue?”
“No, foam and glue are out. I suppose there’s a minimum fastener requirement”
“What’s the minimum fastener requirement?”
“Well one, I suppose…”
I thought this was a legit conversation.
It probably was an off-the-record conversation.
Is this the Socratic method, sort of?
It is precisely the Socratic method.
Problem is most of these PR people are trained and experienced in bumping their gums without ever answering questions and the investigators let them get away with it.