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While an unfortunate topic, this article is a breath of fresh air at the Free Press. In-depth, focused, unbiased and genuinely focused on a meaningful issue that should concern most people. Excellent stuff.

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The whistleblower death is definitely suspicious. But I wouldn't say this article is unbiased. Referencing the UA flight from San Fran to Japan losing a tire during takeoff on a 22 year old plane is not a Boeing mistake, but a United Airlines maintenance mistake.

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If you forward to 2:00 minutes into this video from Blancolirio, you will hear the follow up to the lost wheel story which turned out to be a failure of the actual wheel itself, NOT a maintenance procedure gone wrong nor a Boeing problem in any way.

Let’s all do better to be responsible and post accurate information with what actually happened. Please avoid scaring the public with speculation and misleading hypotheses before the facts come out.

https://youtu.be/rN256wwVwrs?si=6BKv9AhS_AbVG6SR

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Either the wheel design was defective or it was beyond it's use date, the later would be a maintenance issue.....including required inspections. The first Boeing.

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Considering the age of the plane I would say that the design is fine and the wheel has certainly led a good reliable life.

Checking online it looks like the wheels are made by Goodrich Aerospace and the landing gear made by Heroux Devtek.

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Doesn’t that kind of depend? If UA was doing scheduled maintenance, then it still seems like a Boeing issue.

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Depends on why it failed but probably not Boeing's fault. FAA is increasing oversight of United and is considering restrictions on growth. They know more than we do.

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And you have confidence in the FAA because? They’ve had infinite duty for overseeing and insuring the safety of Boeing since day one.

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Not saying the FAA is blameless. The revolving door between industry and regulators is a part of the reason Boeing's been having problems and wasn't reined in sooner.

However, FAA has more information than we do, and United can have problems of its own that are not Boeing's fault. United has been expanding and that doesn't always go well. Some of the recent United problems were described as maintenance issues - that does happen and the tire could be one of them. It's more likely a maintenance issue than a Boeing issue.

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One reason it happens is because the FAA farms all it sates responsibilities out to the companies in the flying industry. The vast majority of the blame goes to the FAA and DOT. FAA is the dysfunctional entity I have ever seen or worked for.

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Agree. Boeing has a massive brand image issue and any mistake that occurs with Boeing aircraft just compounds the issue.

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