Southwest Airlines Community

Wow, the messaging from Boeing has just become unbelievably embarrassing for them.  Blaming the LionAir and EthiopianAir pilots, for this obvious Boeing failure, it makes me ashamed the company is USA based.   But now, Southwest's CEO mouths off every chance he gets about how he can't wait to get onto a 737MAX8 as soon as they are returned to air service.  Southwest's CEO has lost all perspective: profits over safety, that is clear enough now.  For Boeing, that unfortunately was evident last November, and has just become worse and worst and worse.  But Mr. Kelly, you seem to be desperate to catch up with Boeing in trying to gloss over the problems with this airplane, and its lack of airworthyness.   In case I had any second thoughts on where to fly, you have made those decisions easy, all by yourself.  It will no longer be on Southwest airlines. ... View more

Contrary to the positioning from Southwest, the more that comes out about the 737 MAX, the worse it gets.  MCAS, pilot training, designed-to-achieve-type-cert, essentially self-certification by Boeing, firing of Boeing certification employees that emphasized too much safety, and not enough Boeing profits, lobbying the FAA to overlook modern safety standards that the 737 MAX8 does not achieve (for instance redundant rudder control-lacking), decent testing of flight critical systems like MCAS that override pilot input.  Differences in the way 737MAX8 fly and react to pilot input vs. 737NG (like stick pull back disengaging electric trim on NG's, but not doing so on MAX8 (because it needs to override the pilot to handle the dynamic instability in the lift pattern of the plane.)  The FAA's failure to ground the plane after the 1st crash (because of Boeing lobbying).  The KNOWLEDGE of what was wrong by Nov. 2018, but STILL no grounding.  A second crash, and STILL lobbying to keep these planes in the air.   These are planes that should never fly again given what is now publically known about the plane.  AND YET, Southwest keep droulig out sounds like, "when the "fix" is applied we will be ready to go".    Mr. Kelly, clearly you DO NOT GIVE SH...T about the safety of your customers.  It is DISGUSTING.  You and your decision making process is ENTIRELY about the profits EXPLICITLY AT THE EXPENSE OF CUSTOMER safety.   You say you would gladly ground the 737MAX8 indefinitly if that was the right call on customer safety?  Put your money where your mouth is.   How much more has to come to light before your UNFOUNDED faith in this aircraft, and Boeing your supplier actually gets the proper doubt any decent human being would apply.     You truly disgust me. ... View more

SWA wrotes:  "Boeing MAX aircraft, which  ...  [edited] we feel confident that all of the necessary actions have been taken to operate the aircraft safely and reliably.  Really?  After Boeing's CEO basically threw the 350 deaths due there unsafe flying disaster, phrased as "a link in a chain" of failure.  Hogwash.  This was 110% Boeing's fault.  This is simple.  The SECOND that the 737 MAX 8 becomes active in the Southwest fleet, is the same moment I become an EX Southwest customer.  Really, your phrasing above already frankly makes me an ex-Southwest customer.  "Necessary actions ... to operate the aircraft safely and reliably."  First, if you think you know what those are now, I don't want to fly with you.  Second, there are no such actions that make this plane safe.  You own 34 paper weights, and the second you start throughing them into the air again, I fly with Delta and Alaska.  ... View more

Southwest and Boeing made a huge mistake here with the 737-MAX.   I include Southwest in the responsibility because they were the launch customer for the plane.  It is quite obvious at this point (even with all the equivacation) the MAX MCAS system was designed wrong (single point of failure, no pilot notification, no redundancy, single input, no qualification of signal, PURE pilot override.)  e.g. the WORST case for any system on a plane, taking the pilot of the equation, with no explicit notice that the pilot is being over-ridden.   WHY?  Greed.  This allowed Southwest, and other customers to not need (in theory) training on the new systems and behavior, creating the worst of all worlds, one in which pilots are kept in the dark, and given no notice.  Personally, I will not be flying on Southwest again, until I read they are no longer flying the 737 MAX.  That the brand new death machines have been retired.  The entire way the aircraift achieved flight certification calls into question its flight worthyness for all time.  No way would I ever board a Southwest flight to Hawaii on a MAX, not now, NOT EVER.  Not when the "fix" is announced (some software BS patch), on a system that still will not have any redundancy in hardware, signalling, and that BY DESIGN still overrides the pilot, so that the plane model can pretend to fly more like older different design and engined 737 aircraft.   Southwest's comments thus far have been UNIMPRESSIVE- as have Boeings, the FAA's, NTSB, the Indonesian investigators, the French investigators, and the launch customer, Southwest.  I will not be flying Southwest, again until I read that the aircraft are RETIRED, permanently, for all time, sold or grounded forever.   The aircraft really needs to be recertified, and I would prefer that happen on an airline I don't fly.  I really don't care about Southwest's investment in the MAX (which is substantial), I only care that their so called committment to safety is actually made good by acknowledging that the aircraft is not ready to fly.   Since I cannot be bothered to attempt to figure out if Southwest will be flying this model on any given flight, I will simply refuse to fly SWA until the plane model is no longer in the fleet.    Not negotiable.  Not subject to half-backed CEO video's, not backed off in any way.  I will simply fly a different airline.  ... View more