Internal Boeing messages show employees deriding 737 Max 'designed by clowns'

Internal messages between Boeing employees from 2017 released on Thursday revealed comments that have raised serious concerns about the manufacturer's already controversial 737 Max aircraft.

According to the Guardian, in the messages from April 2017 employees described the model that had suffered two catastrophic crashes in 2018 and 2019 as “designed by clowns who are supervised by monkeys”.

And another two employees complained about issues having to do with the plane’s flight management computer.

One of those messages, dated November 2015, appeared to shed light on lobbying methods used by the company when faced with demands from regulators, with one employee noting that regulators were likely to want simulator training for a particular type of cockpit alert.

“We are going to push back very hard on this and will likely need support at the highest levels when it comes time for the final negotiation,” the employee wrote.

In releasing redacted versions of what it called “completely unacceptable” communications, Boeing said it was committed to transparency with the regulator.

Unredacted versions of the messages were turned over to the FAA and Congress in December 2019.

After reviewing the documents, the regulatror said that “it determined that nothing in the submission pointed to any safety risks that were not already identified as part of the ongoing review of proposed modifications to the aircraft”.

“Any potential safety deficiencies identified in the documents have been addressed,” it added.

“The tone and content of some of the language contained in the documents is disappointing.”