Boeing 737 Max shows governments have forfeited oversight

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, February 13, 2024

The U.S. and Canada have a corporate-control problem, one in which big businesses hold way too much sway on government decisions or lack thereof (“Boeing mechanics in Renton mis-installed piece that blew off plane, whistle-blower says,” The Herald, Jan. 24).

In a Dec. 28, 2019 Globe and Mail investigative report, it was revealed that Transport Canada had essentially been certifying Boeing aircraft flown by Canada’s airlines based on the findings of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Even after the second catastrophic 737 Max crash — the first was Lion Air Flight 610 on Oct. 29, 2018 and the second was Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019, together horrifically killing 346 people — Transport Canada said it would wait for the FAA’s decision on whether it would ground the planes flown by American carriers. What?

Meanwhile, the FAA was basically acting as a rubber stamp for the giant Boeing corporation’s planes, including its flawed 737 Max product and who knows what other potential disasters before it?. It’s still most concerning.

A common refrain prevails among Western capitalist nation governments and corporate circles that best business practices, including what’s best for the consumers, are best decided by business decision makers.

Other than what’s best for bottom-line corporate profit margins. This was proven false by, as a more consequential example, Boeing’s decision to keep its ill-fated 737 Max planes flying, regardless of major indicators, including employee warnings, they should be grounded and serious software glitches corrected.

I fear that when it comes to the biggest of business and their lobbyists’ frightening influence over important government-body safety decisions, deadly reckless business decisions will be repeated, even ones enabling preventable jetliner crashes.

Frank Sterle Jr.

White Rock, B.C.