Open letter to Boeing engineers, FBI, CIA, NTSB, FAA, other Government officials, and passengers.

To the Boeing engineers reading this:

Renton, we have a problem. Boeing 737, 747, and now a 757 are crashing mysteriously. What is going on? You Boeing engineers are facing dilemmas. You have conflicts in principles. You have opposing loyalties. What to do? Here's the problem: After an hour or so of scanning, reviewing this web site you will come to the realization that four crashes are so similar as to all have the same cause. The official explanations have been bomb, bomb, cargo door, unexplained. So it's either all bombs, or all cargo door, or all something else.
Then you will review the site again looking, hoping that the all bomb theory could be true. It won't be. You will leave the site in a huff and try to forget about it. You will come back to it after saying nothing to your friends and colleagues. You will again confirm, knowing what you know about engineering, mechanical systems, and human nature that in fact, forward cargo doors are opening in flight and the same sequence of consequences occurs for four airplanes.You will wonder why the cargo door opens when it shouldn't. And then shake your head as if to say, I believe this nonsense? and again run away.
Alone you will think, what if it's true? What about me, my family, my job, my status, my life? And all you will see is disaster. A long standing mechanical defect in your company's best product has failed and killed hundreds of people. You may have been involved in designing the defect. Your reputation and your friend's reputations will be destroyed. The company may go bankrupt and you will lose your pension and health benefits. Your children can not go to special schools, no new cars, no new job. It's all over.
Alone you will come to the conclusion that the knowledge of the defective cargo door must never be made public, must never be even whispered to aircraft buyers and certainly not to any kind of lawyer. Your defenses will rise up to protect you, your family, your job, your house, your life and your identity as a professional engineer with Boeing Airplane Company.
You will relax when your realize that your defenses are strong and many. The government is on your side. The government has it's reputation also at risk with its official reports that omit your defective cargo door as a cause. The airlines are on your side. The airline does not want any discussion about improper operation of the cargo door to enter public discourse.
Everything will look safe and nothing to worry about. Your airplanes will continue to be ordered, your paycheck will continue to be printed out, your family will continue on as usual. Everything is OK.
And yet, and yet...
As an engineer, if something mechanical is not right, it should be fixed. And that door is not right with three ADs against it and documented earlier failures. You know that cutting a hole, a big hole, in a pressurized hull is stupid but had to be done to comply with the airlines request for fast baggage loading. The bad thing was making that door open outward. The new optional doors open inward and will plug the hole. Maybe by getting all the old 747s to put in the new inward opening doors would fix the problem, but how to even talk about the problem without revealing there is a problem. So, a problem.
As a father you know that sons and daughters are flying now in those planes with the risky doors. The doors may have killed about a thousand so far, and maybe more, who knows. You would hate to see or read about more children killed in a mystery 747 plane crash. But how to protect those innocent children passengers? A problem.
As an employee you want Boeing to be the best airplane maker in the world and would not do anything to hurt that. How to make something better without referring to the bad part that needs to be made better? A problem.
A dilemma between loyalty as parent to children passengers, as employee to reputation of company, as wage earner to being fired, and as an engineer to fix something that's wrong and make something that's better.
By keeping silent you live a lie. You are not an engineer, you are not a parent, and you are not a loyal employee. You can probably get away with it...unless another one crashes.
By investigating the entire possible mechanical functions and malfunctions of the cargo doors on all Boeing 747s, (the aft and side doors also have problems) you will be an engineer by improving a machine, a parent by protecting innocent children passengers, and a loyal employee by helping your company build the finest safest airplanes in the world.
So, the high road or the low road?

To the NTSB investigators reading this:

You have a problem. Normally the NTSB is aloof from retribution from political enemies as an independent investigating body but your buddies helped write reports which are now shown to be false causing the unnecessary deaths of hundreds. You have close relationships with Boeing engineers who have assisted you in previous crashes. Your bosses all the way up to the top, the very top, have said this crash was a terrorist act and therefore not a cargo door.
If it's a cargo door, then the whole profession of aircraft accident investigation is damaged because of previous wrong crash conclusions. If a cargo door, questions will arise of why did it take you so long to find out the obvious answer, cargo door opening in flight, so simple, so well documented, so clear. If a cargo door, then it's going to be slogging through the mud of proper investigation of pieces of metal, background research in front of computers, telephone consultations with people who don't want to talk to you, and writing pages and pages of reports instead of letting your FBI colleagues do all the work in the pursuit of their single minded purpose to the exclusion of all others, bomb. If no bomb, then the FBI doesn't get its budget increased, no more agents hired, no pay raises, and no good assignments overseas.
Your colleagues don't want a cargo door, your buddies don't want a cargo door, your bosses up the line don't want a cargo door, and you don't want a cargo door. What to do?
Maybe it's not a cargo door after all and you will re-read the web site and come again to the conclusion, one cause did all the damage to those four airplanes. What could it be other than a cargo door?
You will hope again that over eleven years crazy bombers just happened to hit early model Boeing 747s placing a bomb in the forward cargo hold at the precise place to tear the nose off in .6 of a second. Hey, it could happen, you say to yourself, over and over again.
And hey, it could happen. You watch a little football. And so what, you say, it's not your responsibility what other country's do with their aircraft accident reports. Your job is with TWA 800 and that's it. Forget all this similar clue stuff. One crash, one investigation, one probable cause as unknown and get on to the next crash. Hope it's not another Boeing 747 that disappears off the radar scope when the nose gets torn off leaving an abrupt power failure on the data recorders, just like the other four crashes, you laugh silently to yourself and look around to make sure nobody is looking. You can probably get away with it...unless another one crashes.
And then again, you are an aircraft accident investigator and you tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may. You didn't spend your entire working life to end up being a pawn for the FBI to increase their budget. And pride is something you talk about but when it comes to preventing death in airplanes the truth counts first. You could just to be on the safe, prudent, and professional side investigate the door and rule it out so that the report would be complete. Ah, what to do? The high road or the low road?

To airline employees reading this:

You have dilemmas. You may realize you are putting people on airplanes that are not safe and may crash. You lose both ways. If not a cargo door the people will lose faith in airplanes that are crashing mysteriously and stop flying. If it is a cargo door they may stop flying because of fear of crashing in unsafe mechanical airplanes. If in doubt about cargo door or not, the passengers may stop flying also. Or at least a few will stop flying and that means decreased passenger loads which ripple all the way down to laying off employees.
So you do not want to believe it is a cargo door. You do not want to believe you contribute to the deaths of passengers. You will leave the site as soon as the enormity of the tragedy becomes clear. Over eleven years Boeing 747s have crashed and killed hundreds And more to come. What to do? Well, if you followed the written procedures in English about closing the cargo door and looking through the view hatches to see the cam sectors and locking latches in place, and reading the warning labels on the door, in English, then you have nothing to worry about..unless you don't read the english so good, and it was a dark, noisy night and the plane was running behind schedule and you had to hurry up and might have skipped a few steps. Then maybe a problem.
If you look at the door sills and find damage, or look at the cam sectors and find excessive wear, what to do? If you report it the FAA may come in and ground your airline, check all your paperwork, issue a fine, and scare off the customers. It's a problem.
If employed higher up it might look bad that the airplane had 93000 plus hours on an airframe designed to have a life of 60000 hours. But you had extensions from the government FAA on that so let them worry about that. The paperwork is a little confused on that particular airplane but everyone understands a little backlogged paperwork, they won't put you in jail just because you didn't implement a few things in a few regulations, now would they?
You don't want a cargo door. But better check on the cargo doors you do have for proper function, better check the procedures manuals to make sure they are up to date, just in case. You will probably be OK...unless another one crashes.
Or, inspect every cargo door on every 747 you fly and report any damage to cam sectors or lock sectors. Inspect every wire bundle leading to door motor for fraying. Inspect every door sill for excessive wear. Inspect maintenance logs of all airplanes for multiple cargo door gripes. Put multi-lingual caution labels on all the doors. Ensure all aspects of all ADs are complied with. Report all instances of damage, wear, or unusual movement of doors to FAA. Conduct training classes of ground handlers on proper procedures for latching and locking forward cargo doors.
It's a lot of work, the high road or the low road?

To CIA officials reading this:

Time to take advantage of a natural disaster and turn it to your gain, just as was done with Pan Am 103. What enemies of the state can be blamed for this airplane disaster? The outside ones have all been done, or they have nukes and we can forget about those. How about inside enemies? You know, domestic terrorists that are really foreigners but live inside. If the FBI is going overseas in its pursuit of evil, then the CIA should be able to set up safe houses and liaison offices domestically, yes? All that's needed is a few more positive readings of explosive residue which is invisible but can be detected with expensive, sophisticated machines operated by non-sophisticated persons not making that much money, if you get my drift. You could probably get away with it...unless another one crashes. Ah, so much fun, the low road, or the low road?

To FBI officials reading this:

You have a problem. If it's a cargo door, and it is, as you see by reading the web site, that means that the 1.1 billion dollars on the table for increased airline security will not be funded because the threat is not there. You don't care about cargo doors or terrorists causing the crash of TWA 800 but you do care about permission to open offices overseas, hiring more agents, better assignments, and promotions. All of those things happen with a bomb or missile but will not happen with a cargo door cause. What to do?
Keep on ignoring any information concerning the cause of the crash that is not related to bomb or missile. Act as bomb prosecutors and not crash investigators. Hope for another lucky break like Pan AM 103's small blast that was turned into big bomb blast by artful report writing. Hope that nobody likes an unknown mechanical cause and the innate fear of unknown terrorists will persuade the elected officials to fund the billion anyway.
You'll probably get the funding...unless another one crashes.
Or, you could be an investigator and determine the cause of the problem, either human or machine. Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity, means just that. You could investigate everything about the crash of TWA 800 and related crashes. You could prepare a report and submit it that compares the similarities of the crimes/crashes. You could use criminal investigative procedures on a machine who has killed before and continues his method of operation to this day.You could consider other angles than bombs or terrorists and present the findings and let the chips fall where they may. You may not get a promotion or assignment overseas but you would have integrity, bravery, and fidelity. The high road or the low road?

To government officials reading this:

You have big big problems. But then, that's your job, isn't it, solving big problems. You certified as safe a cargo door on the Boeing 747 which is not safe. You issued airworthiness directives to correct the problems in the door when it became apparent that they were unsafe. You issued more airworthiness directives to fix the door problems when the first second and third ADs did not work.You assisted in aircraft accidents overseas which came to the wrong conclusions based upon your contributions. You have a leader who has already stated the cause of the accident even though he is not a pilot and never flies commercially. And the cause the President stated is not cargo door.
An airplane crash, Pan Am 103, was blamed by the then President on a bomb, too. And he acted like a gang leader whose pride was insulted and he had to get respect so he did a drive by shooting of a foreign leader and shot and killed an innocent bystander who got in the line of fire, his two year old daughter. And it was a mistake because Libya never bombed Pan Am 103, a cargo door opened inadvertently, as you see by reviewing the website. So an apology is due from a head of state to another head of state. That will be a problem for the President to apologize to the leader of Libya for accidentally killing his daughter.
So after reading this website you will come to the conclusion that one mechanical cause crashed four airplanes and it probably was the forward cargo door and not the bomb cause which made everything so easy. There is the conflict.
You will calculate the days until retirement and then figure out how long an investigation into the three crashes will take. You will come to the estimate of ten years and by then you will have transferred to a different department, or retired. But to be on the safe side, you will consider finding all the documents with your name on them and purge those obsolete, irrelevant files out of existence.
You are immune from lawsuits that may attempt to receive compensation from the negligent oversight which the public trust gave to the FAA, the NTSB, the Department of Transportation, the FBI, and the President. You can't be fired. You will receive your pension. The worst that can happen is non promotion if a cargo door. There is no best that can happen if a cargo door is determined to be the cause of the four crashes.
You will re-read the site and determine again that only a same large mechanical malfunction can bring down three 747s in a split second and almost nail a fourth and the only logical cause would be that damn door that has given you trouble from day one. What do do?
Have another beer and forget about the whole thing until Monday, then push it to Tuesday and by Wednesday everything will be so normal you'll wonder why you ever fooled around with that thing called the web. They ought to control stuff like that, you will think, things like that can be dangerous, scaring people for no good reason. And you will call a few people at the FCC and ask about controlling the internet, there's a lot of crazies out there. After hanging up, you will feel relieved that you have done something about public safety, which is your job after all.
You'll probably get away with it...unless another one crashes.
Or you could issue an emergency AD and ground all the Boeing 747s with outward opening cargo doors and order them welded shut until the investigation into TWA 800 is complete. You could request that the investigations into Air India 182 and Pan Am 103 be reopened in the light of new evidence from TWA 800. You could be completely open about the crash of TWA 800 which is a civilian airliner which crashed in a non secret area during peacetime. You could open negotiations to compensate the victims on the ground at Lockerbie and Libya.
Ah, pride hurt, what to do, the high road or the low road?

To passengers reading this:

It's still safer flying a Boeing 747 whose door may pop off and blow your airplane up in midair than driving to the airport, so lean back, order a scotch, and think about what you are going to do tonight, if there is a tonight for you. You'll probably make it...unless another one crashes.
Or you could make some calls, ask some questions, write some letters, spend some money, read some more. Or put your life in the hands of strangers. The high road or the low road?
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barry@corazon.com