Frontline Season 40 Episode 13 Boeing's Fatal Flaw

In the 40th season of the popular documentary series Frontline, episode 13 titled "Boeing's Fatal Flaw" delves deep into the tragic tale of the Boeing 737 MAX airliners that suffered two fatal crashes, leading to the grounding of the plane worldwide.

The episode starts by highlighting the well-established legacy of the Boeing 737, an aircraft that was popular due to its efficiency, reliability, and safety. However, when Boeing introduced the 737 MAX, an updated version of the aircraft, it soon became a public relations disaster, as two of its flights, Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, crashed within five months, killing 346 people in total. The incidents raised serious concerns about the safety of the aircraft and triggered a global scrutiny of Boeing's safety culture that was later uncovered to be built on a foundation of corporate profits and regulatory capture.

To understand the root cause of the crash, the program follows a thorough investigation process that reveals an inherent design flaw in the aircraft's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). The system was designed to automatically control the nose of the plane in the event of a high angle of attack, but the program repeatedly malfunctioned due to faulty sensors, forcing the planes to dive uncontrollably. According to the episode, Boeing knew about the MCAS problem as early as 2017, but instead of addressing the issue, the company chose to hide it from the pilots and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to rush the plane's approval process.

The episode highlights several footages of the congressional hearings where families of the crash victims testify against Boeing's negligence and abysmal safety culture. The show also features interviews from industry experts, pilots, aviation regulators, and insiders who provide insight into the flaws in the aviation safety industry that led to the disaster. The documentary exposes how the FAA failed to catch the problems in the planes, and in doing so, enabled the company's worst tendencies at the expense of passengers' safety.

The program also describes the impact of the two crashes on the global aviation industry, including the loss of revenue to the airlines, the grounding of planes, and the controversy they brought to the aviation industry. The episode delves deep into how the incidents prompted questions about the FAA's role in regulating the airliner manufacturing process, corporate governance and responsibility, and systemic issues in the aviation industry.

Overall, Frontline's episode "Boeing's Fatal Flaw" provides an in-depth investigation into the reasons behind the 737 MAX crashes, exposing the flaws in Boeing's safety culture that led to the disaster and highlighting the failures of the aviation industry and its regulators. Through the use of exclusive footage and interviews, the program offers an eye-opening look at how corporate greed and regulatory capture can impact the safety of the aviation industry and how a little transparency and accountability can go a long way in preventing a disaster.