Flying Blind

The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing

By: Peter Robison

Narrated by: Feodor Chin

Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times Business Best Seller • A suspenseful behind-the-scenes look at the dysfunction that contributed to one of the worst tragedies in modern aviation: the 2018 and 2019 crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX. An "authoritative, gripping and finely detailed narrative that charts the decline of one of the great American companies" (New York Times Book Review), from the award-winning reporter for Bloomberg.

Boeing is a century-old titan of industry. It played a major role in the early days of commercial flight, World War II bombing missions, and moon landings. The plane maker remains a cornerstone of the U.S. economy, as well as a linchpin in the awesome routine of modern air travel. But in 2018 and 2019, two crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 killed 346 people. The crashes exposed a shocking pattern of malfeasance, leading to the biggest crisis in the company’s history—and one of the costliest corporate scandals ever.

How did things go so horribly wrong at Boeing?

Flying Blind is the definitive exposé of the disasters that transfixed the world. Drawing from exclusive interviews with current and former employees of Boeing and the FAA; industry executives and analysts; and family members of the victims, it reveals how a broken corporate culture paved the way for catastrophe. It shows how in the race to beat the competition and reward top executives, Boeing skimped on testing, pressured employees to meet unrealistic deadlines, and convinced regulators to put planes into service without properly equipping them or their pilots for flight. It examines how the company, once a treasured American innovator, became obsessed with the bottom line, putting shareholders over customers, employees, and communities.

By Bloomberg investigative journalist Peter Robison, who covered Boeing as a beat reporter during the company’s fateful merger with McDonnell Douglas in the late ‘90s, this is the story of a business gone wildly off course. At once riveting and disturbing, it shows how an iconic company fell prey to a win-at-all-costs mentality, threatening an industry and endangering countless lives.

©2021 Peter Robison (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS BESTSELLER • WALL STREET JOURNAL BUSINESS BESTSELLER • NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR, NEWSWEEK, THE NEW YORK POST • A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR • A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE • WINNER OF THE SABEW BEST BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR • LONGLISTED FOR THE FT BEST BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR

"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: of politicians believing business knew best, of regulators bending to their will, and of shareholder returns elevated above any consideration for the rest of society, including consumers’ safety—and lives."—Financial Times

"Powerful and unsettling... A page-turner...One can only hope that the next generation of corporate executives will read Robison’s book."—Washington Post

"A disturbing account that will return much-deserved scrutiny both to Boeing and to its regulator."—Wall Street Journal

Stunning narrative of a corporate shift from quality to profit maximization and the deadly results

Stunning narrative covering the history of Boeing’s rise to prominence as the global standard in safety and quality. However, as their management became corrupted with profit-centered accountants and Jack Welch devotees, the author tracks how management slowly destroyed the foundations of the great company - cut costs and people and safeguards in the name of profits until the deadly results in 2019. Huge cautionary tale for any company whose existence depends on a reputation for safety and quality.

Great audiobook touching on so many subjects

How did the 737 Max and other issues happen at the largest aircraft builder in the world? This book touches on so many factors, numerous of which to watch for at your company and in deciding where you want to commit your time and treasure.

corporate greed drives everything these days

The book very well makes the case that corporate greed is the driving factor in everything corporate. It's really sickening. The only thing I wish the book would have spent a little more time on was the engineering aspect of the flaw and also the fixes. perhaps more discussion with engineers.

Just, WOW.

it took me a few weeks to complete this book. I listened in the morning while preparing to go to work and while commuting to and from. some of the things I had already known, but some of them were shocking to learn. When people who are familiar with the company ask how I felt about the book, my response is always, "It will not only enlighten you to some of the shadiness that most of us did not know about, but it's going to also piss you off". I thoroughly enjoyed the story.

Case study

This book is the perfect case study for why Boeing should have been left to sink when it killed all the passengers in the 737 Max planes and why it should be sunk when it f$cks up again, which will happen. WATCH.

Very interesting if you are engineer

I've worked in the engineering industry for over two decades, but not for Boeing. This story is very accurate according to my experiences. Unfortunately, when you cut costs in the airline industry, the consequences are much higher than in the satellite industry where I work.

Chilling and deeply disturbing

And yet not a single manager or exec was held to account financially, let alone criminally. Depressing.

Great book about extractive management philosophy

Some of the early negative reviews on this book were from pilots expecting a detailed technical account of the 737 Max catastrophes. Instead, this is a book about management failures and why they happen. The book is a must-read on its proper topic. If, however, you wanted to learn about whether you can torque rivets, then no, this is not the book you are looking for.

It particular, the book eviscerates the legacy of Jack Welch, whose share-holder-value-maximizing philosophy has eviscerated the long-term profitability of GE, 3M, Boeing, and others, while destroying their reputations, and then, tragically, taking hundreds of lives. It's fascinating to learn the details of how a company can get hijacked by an obsession with the wrong metrics and short-term goals. The book details how Boeing loses the ability to invest substantively in safe, excellent new products because of a focus on business-unit profitability and other share-holder-friendly goals. It becomes a company that would not be capable of inventing the planes that made it profitable in the first place.

Perhaps the most shocking bit is that McDonald Douglas self-destructed following Jack Welch's philosophy, then was bought by Boeing, whereupon its leadership took over Boeing and destroyed the company using precisely same methodology — then killed hundreds of people — then got away with hundreds of millions of dollars. I mean, wow, what a history.

The book is an indictment of our systems of accountability, in both the private sector and government. There's something very rotten here that will only get fixed if lots of people get angry. So please do read it and get angry. And read it to prevent this from happening in your workplace. (And then read Other People's Money by Jon Kay to flesh out your understanding even further).

A Take of Hubris and Greed

The truth is sad and infuriating: Robison’s meticulously researched work exposes the human and societal toll of shareholder profit-driven corporate culture..

The cold face of capitalism laid bare

If you ever need a cautionary tale about capitalist greed, look no further than this book. It doesn’t get more provenly wicked than this