How Boeing Shifts the Blame

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/opinion/letters/boeing-plane-crash.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Boeing’s Problems Are a Lot Bigger Than He Feared” (Business Day, March 6):

The remarks by David L. Calhoun, Boeing’s chief executive, about the failings that led to the 737 Max disasters are disingenuous and hypocritical.

My sister was killed on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. As an M.I.T.-educated aerospace engineer with 30 years’ experience, I view his remarks as an effort to shift blame for Boeing’s troubles.

Mr. Calhoun served on Boeing’s board for the last decade. The board followed a strategy emphasizing profits and stock price. Mr. Calhoun could have raised concerns with his fellow board members. To place the blame exclusively on Dennis A. Muilenburg, his predecessor as chief executive (who does not deserve any relief), is a complete abandonment of the responsibility held by the Boeing board.

Mr. Calhoun also tries to blame foreign pilots, suggesting that the assumption was that they would be trained as adequately as American pilots. This ignores that the 737 Max was marketed as an airplane that would require no additional training from previous models.

This accident should not have happened. Boeing needs to stop blaming others for its mistakes.

Javier de LuisCambridge, Mass.

To the Editor:

Re “Bangladesh, a Fashion Hub, Grapples With Factory Safety” (news article, March 2):

Bangladesh is committed to protecting our citizens’ lives. The Ready Made Sustainability Council is the product of much discussion and cooperation among the government of Bangladesh, top international garment brands, NGOs, labor unions and workers.

The organization is well positioned to ensure steady progress on workplace safety in Bangladesh, and the government will assist it in every way possible.

Mohammad ZiauddinWashingtonThe writer is Bangladesh’s ambassador to the United States.

To the Editor:

As the prosecutor in the 1978 double murder case against Willie Bosket, 15, I read with unease the Feb. 23 editorial “14-Year-Olds Who Kill Are Not Adults.”

Justice won’t be served returning to the days when, as with Mr. Bosket, a young killer can take two lives and be sentenced to just five years in a juvenile facility. Try explaining that to a victim’s loved ones, as I had to do back then.

Justice also wasn’t served later in 1978 in another murder case I prosecuted: the fatal shooting of Hugh McEvoy, a seminary prep student. His killer, 13, was sentenced to only 18 months in a juvenile detention facility.

The editorial posits that Family Court has the resources to deal with teenage killers. Not so in my experience. Family Court is more than busy navigating a heavy calendar of matrimonial and child custody disputes.

Decisions on whether to prosecute serious juvenile offenders as adults are best made by experienced prosecutors, able to investigate cases and the prior behavior of suspects.

The sad truth is that some youths pose a clear and present danger to society. Public safety and the rights of victims must not be overshadowed by the goal of trying to rehabilitate violent juvenile offenders.

Robert H. SilberingNew YorkThe writer was chief of the Juvenile Offense Bureau in the New York County District Attorney’s Office, 1977-78.