Boeing Manager Says He Warned Company Of Problems Months Before 737 Max Crashes | NBC Nightly News — Transcript

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1. 0:00but the Boeing 737 max still grounded
2. 0:02after two deadly crashes a whistleblower
3. 0:05is going public
4. 0:06NBC's Cynthia McFadden saying he warned
5. 0:09the company about production problems
6. 0:10before those planes went down what did
7. 0:14it feel like the the last day of Boeing
8. 0:16the day you retired felt like I was
9. 0:18abandoning Titanic after 30 years in the
10. 0:21military much of it spent in an airplane
11. 0:24at Pearson once a commanding officer has
12. 0:27a strong sense of duty why did you
13. 0:30decide to come and talk to us to come
14. 0:33and testify later this week in front of
15. 0:35Congress well actually um wasn't my plan
16. 0:38I feel like I didn't really have a
17. 0:39choice
18. 0:40bottom line is you're worried about
19. 0:41people dying in Boeing planes absolutely
20. 0:45in 2008 Pearson went to work for Boeing
21. 0:48at their massive plant in Renton
22. 0:50Washington where all the companies 737s
23. 0:53are built the 737 was a magnificent
24. 0:57airplane great safety record were you
25. 0:59excited to work for the company and to
26. 1:01be part of the 737 production I could do
27. 1:03not want to work for Boeing it's amazing
28. 1:05company but in late 2017 as production
29. 1:07of Boeing's new 737 max ramped up
30. 1:11edie Pearson says he started to see
31. 1:13things that alarmed him it was just out
32. 1:16of control and it was ridiculous the
33. 1:18race to build the new planes and compete
34. 1:20with Europe's Airbus pushed the
35. 1:22production schedule into overdrive he
36. 1:23says instead of 47 planes a month 52
37. 1:27were being built so how much overtime
38. 1:30was going on at this point did it double
39. 1:32more than double you work seven days
40. 1:34straight you're beat you know and you're
41. 1:36tired he says during this period many
42. 1:38people work weekend after weekend as
43. 1:41they're worn enough engineers or
44. 1:42electricians and some ended up doing
45. 1:45jobs they had never been trained for a
46. 1:47perfect storm for production problems he
47. 1:49says he sent this email to the head of
48. 1:52the 737 team in June 2018 expressing his
49. 1:56concern that workers were inadvertently
50. 1:58embedding safety hazards into our
51. 2:00airplanes I know how dangerous even a
52. 2:03small defect can be to the safety of an
53. 2:06airplane he says he urged the Boeing
54. 2:08manager to shut down the factory for a
55. 2:10few weeks to straighten things
56. 2:12and what was his reaction to that he
57. 2:14said you know we can't shut down and
58. 2:17then I gana got mad and said you know
59. 2:18I've seen military operations shut down
60. 2:21for a lot less what was his reply to
61. 2:23that something I'll never forget he said
62. 2:25um he said well the military is not a
63. 2:27profit-making organization what words
64. 2:29would you use to describe that Factory
65. 2:31at that point dangerous unnecessary
66. 2:35taken unnecessary risk
67. 2:37chaotic disarray four months later a
68. 2:40lion air 737 max crashed killing all
69. 2:44hundred and eighty-nine people on board
70. 2:47and the irony that when you wrote that
71. 2:50first letter that lion airplane was on
72. 2:52the factory floor it was within our
73. 2:55production system at the time when I
74. 2:57when I saw that that was I really can't
75. 3:06say I mean I don't know how to describe
76. 3:09it a lot did you yeah I'm mad at myself
77. 3:14because I felt like that maybe I could
78. 3:16have done more over the next several
79. 3:17months he reached out to Boeing CEO and
80. 3:19their general counsel but felt nothing
81. 3:22was being done 19 days after sending
82. 3:25this letter to the Boeing Board a second
83. 3:28737 max crashed afterwards the 737 max
84. 3:33was grounded Boeing has acknowledged
85. 3:36mistakes including that their anti stall
86. 3:38system contributed to both crashes
87. 3:40Pearson says he doesn't know of what he
88. 3:43witnessed contributed to the crashes but
89. 3:45it's the uncertainty that disturbs him
90. 3:47somewhere in the end of my letter to the
91. 3:49board I said you know no one wants to
92. 3:51wake up one morning and and and and hear
93. 3:54of another accident and that's exactly
94. 3:57what happened what do you say to
95. 3:58Americans who are planning to fly on the
96. 4:01737 even in the next few weeks my
97. 4:04family's in the same boat
98. 4:05I would demand that the FAA in their
99. 4:08role as regulators go in thoroughly
100. 4:12investigate that Factory so Cynthia what
101. 4:15is Boeing saying about all this well
102. 4:17Lester while the 737 max fleet are all
103. 4:20grounded there are more than 6800 other
104. 4:23737s flying now boeing is
105. 4:26pushing back strongly denied saying that
106. 4:27the 737 is one of the safest planes
107. 4:30flying and they say quote the suggestion
108. 4:33by mr. Pearson of a link between his
109. 4:35concerns and the recent max accidents is
110. 4:38completely unfounded and they say so far
111. 4:41no investigators have found quote
112. 4:43production conditions in the factory
113. 4:46contributed to the accidents a NBC News
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