Ethics in Aviation
Not too long ago, my husband and I boarded a flight to Sacramento. After finding our seats and getting ready to take off, he looks at me and says this is a Boeing 737 MAX. It took me a second but then I recalled watching a documentary on this airplane on Netflix called Downfall: The Case Against Boeing. I remembered there being multiple ethical issues that went on behind the scenes. The issue that bothered me the most was the fact that Boeing was more concerned about making money and beating out their competitor than they were about the safety of their aircraft, which resulted in the deaths of 346 people. The pilots had no knowledge of the new system MCAS (maneuvering characteristic augmentation system) and therefore had no formal training on how to override the system that they didn't even know was on the aircraft. The MCAS had known problems as well that the engineers brought up multiple times but were disregarded. The famous saying "money is the root of all evil" definitely applies to this situation and it's unfortunate that so many people had to lose their lives because a company was more concerned about the stock market than they were about the lives of their customers.
Fresh Essays. (May 2023). Ethical and Technical Failures in the Boeing 737 Max. https://samples.freshessays.com/ethical-and-technical-failures-in-the-boeing-737-max.html
ReplyDeleteTraci, thanks for sharing a unique personal story regarding the downfalls of our hyper competitive businesses and the questionable practices they engage in to maximize profits. I also have come across many of these dilemmas in my personal life experience being an American but am also reminded of how much worse things could be from my time spent overseas working in various other non-democratic countries. I am hopeful for our future, thankful that people like you care about others, and grateful that our system allows free and open dialogue to discuss difficult topics. People are more important than profits at the end of the day, and I hope our society can keep that as our guiding ethic to hold companies and leaders accountable.