David Ryder/Getty Images
Boeing 737 MAX airplanes are seen parked on Boeing property near Boeing Field, Washington, in September 2019. The planes have not been delivered to airlines yet as they remain grounded after two fatal crashes.
- Hundreds of internal emails released by Boeing to Congress and the Federal Aviation Administration reveal concern among staffers about the 737 Max.
- One unnamed Boeing employee said in a May 2018 message: "I still haven't been forgiven by god for the covering up I did last year. Can't do it one more time. The Pearly gates will be closed…."
- The employee did not detail what had been covered up, but the hundreds of emails and messages from Boeing employees reveal concerns about issues with the 737 Max.
- In response to the internal messages going public, Boeing said in a press release on Thursday that it wanted to be transparent with Congress and the FAA.
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Internal Boeing emails show that employees were distraught about the 737 Max, a plane with two crashes that have killed a total of 346 people.
In one email from May 2018, an unnamed Boeing employee said they feared eternal damnation for "the covering up" they did.
"I still haven't been forgiven by god for the covering up I did last year. Can't do it one more time," the employee wrote. "The Pearly gates will be closed…."
The message did not detail the "covering up" the employee was referring to.
The message was one of hundreds released by Boeing to Congress and the Federal Aviation Administration last month and obtained by Reuters and The New York Times on Thursday.
The emails range in topics surrounding issues with the 737 Max, including software problems and limited pilot training.
"This airplane is designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys," one employee wrote in an instant message obtained by The Times.
Another employee asked a colleague: "Would you put your family on a Max simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn't."
The colleague responded: "No."
Relatives of 737 Max crash victims say Boeing employees care more about 'protecting their own company' than passengers
Relatives of victims who were killed in an Ethiopian Airlines crash involving a Boeing 737 Max in March 2019 have criticized the internal emails.
Chris Moore, the Toronto-based father of Danielle Moore, 24, who died in the crash, said his family spent Thursday night "agonizing" over the comments.
"I was ruminating how the FAA must have been the butt of the joke because of their ineffectiveness in oversight," he said in a comment provided to Insider by Clifford Law, which represents dozens of families affected by the crash.
REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson
An aerial photo shows Boeing airplanes, many of which are grounded 737 MAX aircraft, at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington.
"I can't believe that this was not typical water-cooler discussions and running joke about the FAA," he continued. "This staff are in the very organization whose lobbyists plied the government to reduce the FAA from a system of oversight to one that overlooks."
The March Ethiopian Airlines crash was the second fatal crash involving a 737 Max, leading to a combined death toll of 346 people.
Nadia Milleron, the mother of Samya Rose Stumo, 24, a Massachusetts woman who was also killed in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, said Boeing should be "completely transparent" with Congress and the public so as to help people understand who's responsible for the hundreds of deaths.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Former Boeing Company President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg testifying before a Senate Transportation Committee hearing on 'Aviation Safety and the Future of Boeing's 737 MAX' in October. He was fired in December.
"The internal Boeing memos just reinforce the impression that they don't really care about whether passengers live or die; they care about protecting their own company," she said in a comment provided by Clifford Law. "But every time they block access to knowledge of the process that killed our loved ones, they hurt us all over again."
Milleron said Boeing should be more transparent about the creation of the 737 Max.
"By blocking our efforts for aviation safety, they are saying we do not care about what happened and we don't care about protecting people in the future," she said. "Boeing could help us feel purpose in our terrible grief if they worked hand in hand to reveal EVERYTHING that happened and prevent tragedies from happening again."
Boeing said it wanted to be transparent when releasing the memos
Boeing said in a press release on Thursday that it wanted to be transparent when providing the emails to the FAA and to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Technology and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
"Some of these communications relate to the development and qualification of Boeing's Max simulators in 2017 and 2018," the company said in the statement. "These communications contain provocative language, and, in certain instances, raise questions about Boeing's interactions with the FAA in connection with the simulator qualification process."
JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images
Workers are pictured next to a Boeing 737 Max 9 airplane in March.
Robert A. Clifford, who represents more than 67 people worldwide in civil litigation against Boeing, said in a statement provided to Insider that the memos indicate that Boeing was at fault. He said that employees knew that the 737 Max had problems, but the company's lack of concern for passenger safety led to hundreds of deaths.
"I am so sorry that the families must continue to endure the callousness, insensitivity and cold-heartedness by Boeing, from top to bottom," he said. "How employees can reach such a lack of concern for human life is beyond cold-heartedness and at the appropriate time, a jury will decide how to punish a company through punitive damages for conduct that goes far beyond negligence."
- Read more:
- Boeing 737 timeline: From the early days to the grounding of the 737 Max after 2 fatal crashes that killed 346 people 5 months apart
- 'This airplane is designed by clowns': Damning Boeing emails reveal internal complaints made about 737 Max safety and information being covered up
- Boeing shares jump following reports that an Iranian missile caused a fatal 737 crash - bucking claims that a technical issue downed the jet
- Boeing 737 Max investigation after several plane crashes revealed additional concerns with wiring and engines
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