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Flying Blind

The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Boeing's story is the corporate scandal that's transfixed the world like none since the bankruptcy of Enron and the BP oil spill.

In examining the history of the 737, a highly-regarded plane that Boeing's new management degraded with cost-focused mandates, Flying Blind explores how Boeing skimped on testing in the race to match a competing plane from Airbus, outsourced software work to poorly paid graduates in India and convinced the US Federal Aviation Authority to put the MAX into service without requiring pilots to undergo simulator training.

Dramatically framed around the 737 MAX crashes, Flying Blind is the definitive exposé that for the first time tells the larger, decades-long story of how a corrupt corporate culture paved the way for the cataclysm.

© Peter Robison 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

 21st Century Business Ethics Engineering Modern Science Workplace & Organisational Behavior Aviation Business

Critic reviews

Vividly written and meticulously researched, Flying Blind is a story everyone - every consumer, every citizen, every worker in every industry - needs to read.
Peter Robison's compelling and richly reported Flying Blind is about so much more than the sad decline of Boeing and the tragic mistakes that led to the 737 Max disaster. It's also the urgent story of how the almighty profit motive supplanted a culture of engineering excellence in boardrooms across America and the avoidable calamity that has impacted all of us as a result.
The astoundingly well reported and beautifully told story of the downfall of what was once a great American company ... a must-read.
Flying Blind is superb reporting in service of a riveting story ... As you turn each page in growing disbelief and anger, I guarantee it will keep you reading late into the night.
Flying Blind is a gripping narrative and required reading for anyone who wants to understand how one of America's mightiest corporations veered so badly off course.
The most affecting parts of this book are Robinson's portraits of those bereaved by the subsequent crashes, and their battle for accountability from a company that tried to pin the blame on foreign pilots' incompetence. This is a compelling, deeply reported account, written in crisp, controlled anger. It is an indictment not just of one of America's most celebrated companies, but of an entire era.
An authoritative, gripping and finely detailed narrative that charts the decline of one of the great American companies...Robison homes in on crucial moments during the eight years it took to design, certify and produce the 737 Max, revealing how at each turn, a fixation on profits led Boeing employees to make a series of catastrophic choices.
The long train of events that led to the tragedies - and the subsequent reputational and financial trashing of one of America's biggest companies - is expertly dissected in Flying Blind.... A 'bottom-line mindset' prevailed. In rich detail, Mr Robison chronicles the shortcomings of that approach at a firm where safety should be paramount.
A startling investigation of the corporate blunders behind the tragedies that claimed the lives of 346 passengers.
A disturbing account that will return much-deserved scrutiny both to Boeing and to its regulator.
All stars
Most relevant
this could really be the business story of the last 100 years. flying blind is comprehensive and thorough and it combines history with the present and probably the future. a lot of people got away with a lot. the senior managers got away with their millions. the company got away with murder. it's a shocking story that is very well told and very well read.

frightening

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A must read for people who fly in Aeroplanes!
When the stock market beats safety.
I'm going to fly Airbus when I have the option

Important read

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Sad to read Boeing’s fall . I have piloted the Death Jet many times and it is a lovely plane but how tragic that so many died due to the greed of corporate managers. This will continue to happen in the world as the Boeing case is merely a single example of the way money has become more important than human life. There are plenty more such examples in the world. Well narrated and very detailed.

Sad

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This is a truly shocking book that damns corporate America and its ability to show that money can cut red tape, influence and also corrupt all.

This is a shocking tale into how cutting corners, putting profit above safety, and how not having a good feedback culture does cost lives.

Incredibly well written and powerful.

Incredible book but shocking

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I loved how it went deep into what went on and gave many different accounts.

Eye opening account of what has gone on!

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