Piers Morgan Uncensored - “Boeing Has A Big Problem” Richard Quest Unpacks Turbulence Death

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

Piers Morgan Uncensored is joined by aviation expert Richard Quest to analyse the tragic story of a Singapore-bound Boeing 777 aeroplane that encountered turbulence leaving a British pensioner dead from a heart attack and others critically injured. Richard explains to Piers Morgan that this incident is actually a small part of a larger pattern, telling him "Boeing has a big problem" when it comes to safety. Piers pushes Richard, who claims that while there are systemic issues with Boeing, he worries more about pilot training than the technology itself. Richard then turns the questioning around to Piers, asking him what he makes of Rishi Sunak announcing a snap general election in the UK for July 4th. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you spend any time at all online at the moment, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's a terrifying time to be an air passenger. Boeing in particular has faced a slew of claims about the safety of his aircraft. Several whistleblowers have raised concerns, a series of high-profile incidents, including a door blowing off an Alaska Airlines flight in January, have caused understandable concern. And yesterday a British man tragically died of a suspected heart attack after Singapore Airlines flight hit severe turbulence and plunged 6,000 feet. So should we be alarmed? Was there one better to ask than CNN Star, aviation mega brain? Richard Quest, who I've spoken to in many years.

Richard, great to see you. Good to see you, Pears. It's a fascinating story, this one, of the Singapore flight, because in essence, it could happen to any one of us that flies. There are no unique factors about this case other than you have a plane that is flying along and all of a sudden gets hit by turn.

But what's interesting, Pears, is that the height that this plane went up and down was not thousands of feet. It was only several hundred feet at each time. But the ferocity because of what's known as the vertical rate of ascent, that's what was so powerful. This plane was being pummeled up and pummel down several hundred feet a minute. And that's why it was so difficult. And ultimately, what level did it go from and to by the end of this? Right. Now, this is where not that much. The greatest differential of feet seems to be about 300.

So it goes from 37,000 up to 37150 and then maybe down to 36,700. The confusion here, peers, is people of confusing later on where they see the plane descending to 31,000 feet. But if you look at the chart, that is a control. descent on autopilot, and it's a continual descent down to a lower level. The actual incident, the differential, is from bottom to top, is about 400 feet, but it happens aggressively. It happens at a rate of ascent of 1,000 a minute, and at a rate of descent at 1,500 a minute. These are very, very violent movements, but they're just not that big.

Now, I think your right in saying that no plane has ever been. crashed from turbulence, right? Correct. It is the plane is built. I mean, let's take this incident, for instance. There is absolutely zero chance in my view that this incident was ever going to cause the failure and collapse and destruction of the plane.

This was not that great a movement. It was a brutal movement. It was violent, but it wasn't like the plane dropped 10,000 feet. Believe me, if that had happened, you'd have had a lot more dead bodies. So here's my question. Clearly somebody died from a heart attack. It was obviously scary up there

and other people got injured. Here's my question. I just assumed that modern-day aircraft are so sophisticated now, the systems they have. Why is it that they would not be able to detect such turbulence approaching? Because I'm told they have all these built-in systems which are specifically designed now

to actually detect when this stuff is there. So what happened? There is a difference between detecting the presence of the storm and really understanding the ferocity within it. So yes, they did see that there was a weather pattern ahead, and it was obviously one that they could not go around, so they had to go through, or at least go skirt the edges off. But when this thing happens, what they can't tell you is just how bad.

Yes, the radar's got yellows and greens and reds on it that will help them understand it. The best way, actually, is what's known as a ride report, which comes from pilots ahead of them. And one of the parts of the investigation will be, were there ride reports that told them this was not very clever to be going through it? And one other point, Piers, look at my office just sort of vaguely behind you. You can see all the Detroiters of the day.

Now, imagine you're on the plane and they're serving breakfast, and suddenly you're told, well, in a minute or two, you're going to hit this. All of this is just going to go up into the air. And that's why there's such a mess. And those panels, by the way, on the roof, they're meant to be opened and to taken down. So if somebody hits it, something opens it, they fail. All the really serious stuff that controls the aircraft

is hidden way, way down beneath under the floor or in the walls. Now, there have been a lot of Boeing-related incidents. You know, we've had wheels falling off. We've had doors falling off. We've had whistleblowers coming forward to point out all sorts of flaws and problems with the company and its engines and so on and its aircraft. What is your belief about where the truth lies? Does Boeing have a big problem if it does what's causing it?

Yes is the short answer. Boeing has a big problem. And the problem is one of quality control. Let's go back to the Max incident. The problem with the max incident, where the crashes of the max incident wasn't quality. It was profit-seeking over safety. The documentation is absolutely clear. They made mistakes in the way they designed and the way they told pilots about the max.

But now take that as being year one. You then have Calhoun taking over as the CEO, and you have this two-year period where he is telling us that everything is changing. Things are getting better. Safety, safety, safety first. Nothing comes before safety. And then right, you have this door plug where four plugs, four screws are not put back on. And it not only blows the door out,

it blows a hole, a gigantic hole in Boeing's argument that they are safety first. Because for crying out loud, peers, if you're safety first, how do you not put the four plugs back on the door? Why? Now, Michael O'Leary, you know Michael of riot. He told me last year, he said, look, we get planes from Boeing,

and when we go through them, they're fine. They're perfectly safe, but we find things that aren't quite right. This isn't that. This isn't that. Something that's been left on. Nothing terribly significant or serious, but we find we have to put it right. Alaska was an egregious case of that. And now Boeing doesn't have, here's, Boeing does not have to convince me. that it makes brilliant, bloody brilliant planes

that fly beautifully and are fuel efficient. It has to convince us all that it can make those planes so that six months later it doesn't have to go and repair them. You see, my parents don't fly at all. My mother's flown like once in 25 years. She's terrified of it. I've never had any problem. I hate heights, funny enough,

but I've no problem flying at all. But I've got to say, the more of these things that happen, the more slightly twitchy you get. and what you just said is not massively reassuring because I always think it's like the little things start to go wrong. You always assume that inevitably

there's a mindset issue that could lead to a bigger thing going wrong. And that's exactly the sort of... I mean, you're talking about Dog Bikes Baby Syndrome that we have in journalism. You have one incident and suddenly you have millions of incidents and they were always happening all the time anyway,

but suddenly you're seeing them all. And this is really, I think, where we're in the media, have gone slightly a bit off beam. Let's take United. I mean, United has had a series of incidents, but those incidents were happening anyway, and they weren't that serious.

But it did raise the question, which is why the FAA got involved, and which is why United took the measures that it did, and which is why United is now told, yes, you can take new planes again. You can carry on expanding, because there was nothing systemic. That's the word you need to focus on.

And in Boeing's case, there was something systemic at max, Arguably there has been something systemic on quality, and that's what they have to address. But thank goodness, there are a million and one people and processes between when the plane is handed over from Boeing to the airline to when you and I actually get to sit on it and it starts to fly. Is it safer to fly now than it's ever been, do you think,

just notwithstanding all this? Oh, completely. Absolutely. You've got more chance of being hit by lightning than an accident in a plane. I flew yesterday. Riyadh to London, London to New York. I'm flying next week from somewhere else. I don't worry, to be honest, to be honest,

I do not worry about the aircraft itself. I've seen wings in testing being sent to 45, 50 degrees. I've seen just how well built the plane is, even if, I mean, ignoring the door blowing off, I worry more about air traffic control, I worry more about pilot training in some cases in some parts of the world. And I worry about all the ancillary parts that make it. But I do not worry about the actual plane falling apart.

It is the least of my problems. And this incident yesterday on this Singapore Airlines flight, as a result of what happened, as a result of the fact somebody died, are they going to be modifying planes now to try and avoid this recurring in the way that it did? No, no, they won't be because there's nothing they could have done. The man died, regretfully and tragically, probably from a heart attack. What they will be, Piers, if I say to you, and we've known each other a while, if I say to you, always keep your seatbelt fastened, you immediately yawn and then, here we go,

apple pie, motherhood, and turn the light, turn the gas off if you're going away from Christmas, lag your pipes in winter, all the usual bromides. right? You think, oh, good, here we go again. Tell me something I don't know. But if I also give you the example, I'm just looking in my office. If I can find a suitable, something to demonstrate, let's take these things here. This is you on a plane. Now, the plane drops. Look what happens to you. You go down, but the roof is here and you hit the roof. Think of the egg in the bottle. Put an egg in a bottle and shake it. That is you without a seatbelt. And there's something blase about passengers. But, but, particularly, and I'm one of the worst, and I suspect you're up there too, that sort of fly frequently and we're too cool for seatbelts. I mean, you know, that's for little old women at the front of the plane, whatever. No, I make sure now I always fasten the belt, and I keep it loosely fastened when I'm sleeping,

because I don't want to be the egg in the bottle that hits the roof of the plane if we drop. And this thing, Singapore shows us, you don't have to drop much, only a couple of hundred feet. I can't let you go without taking you back to the last time we worked together at CNN, early 2014, where for six consecutive weeks, night in, night out, as I was hosting my show, Pierce Morgan Live, as it was then. And you were my regular guest through this, the aviation guru. And we were trying to work out what the hell had happened to that flight MH370, from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

So my question here, nearly 10 years later, Have we ever found out what happened to that plane? No. And I'm looking for a copy of my book, which is somewhere here, which I think I sent you a copy of. No, we haven't, and that's fascinating because, you know, people will tell me this happened, that, but we don't know. Just leave it at that. We don't know. I have one question for you, Pearz, if I may.

Of course. Are you excited at today's announcement on the UK election? It's interesting. You know what I was really struck by? Is that, you know, when things aren't going well for you, as a political leader. And it just, when it rains, it pours, we would say, right, as UK people. And I watched Rishi Sunak came out of the number 10 door. And it was pouring with rain.

That's been ghastly weather. And they didn't have him covered. So he got absolutely soaked. And all I could think was, the headline the next day will be, rather than Rishi Sunak boldly goes for early election, it's going to be drowning street, you know, washed out Rishi, you know, blah, blah. It'll all be rain and soaking jokes and wet jokes. That is not a great optics.

All I could think, I was mesmerized, not by the fact that it was, you know, July 4th, which is Independence Day. It has always connotations for that. And it's definitely a bold move by seeing that to do it. But just as a former newspaper editor, the glee I would have felt at being able to immediately have a big picture

of this drowned rat prime minister where things can only get wetter or whatever you want to say. that was what struck me. The optics were terrible. Which begs the question, why on earth didn't they just move it inside? Were they hoping to show him as being

man who's like everybody else gets, when you can't do it? So I've got one question for you before you go. And it's this, you fly a lot, and you've already given some insight into the ridiculous schedule you have. Who is the person in the world, present company accepted, who you would least want to be finding yourself sat next to

on a long-term, long-distance flight? Oh, least want to. Least want to. Oh, that's easy. That's easy. Wherever I'm working, the CEO of the company, it's like being, it's like being, you know, the first time you're invited to go on the corporate jet,

you really think you've made it. You're the dogs, but, blocks. And you really think, oh, this is great. And then you get to realize you've got to sit on this bloody plane and make polite conversation without giving anything away to the CEO who accidentally always gets the best seat at the front of the private jet.

So I love sitting next to strangers and making conversation and I love all of that and I've perfected the art of saying, you will let me sleep now, won't you? Do forget me, doing it. And let me go. But no, the person I would least like to spend 12 hours across the Pacific is the CEO.

I once spent 10 hours flying from London to Las Vegas on a Virgin Atlantic flight in one of their, you know, the pods they used to do in first class, upper class, whatever they called it. And there was a very glamorous lady lying next to me and we got on really well and we started having some drinks and laughs and toys. And we never actually got round to what we both did.

And eventually she went to sleep. And one of the studios that came on and went, you're getting on very well with Shania. I said, Shania, she went, that's Shania Twain. We'd be speaking for three hours without me ever clocking that she was at the time the biggest country music star in the world on her way to the country music awards in Vegas.

So you never know on a plane is my thing. You never know. Richard, great to catch up with you. Thank you so much. Anytime, please. Anytime. Take care.