1.4 Aviation Ethics

I believe ethics plays a role in everyday life and it will transcend into your work whether you think about it or not. This applies to the aviation careers that take the lives of thousands of people in their hands every day. This comes down to doing the right and knowing your limits. My experience in the Air Force has taught me that failure comes in many forms but knowing that you are breaking a moral code that is entrusted to your by the people boarding an airplane, expecting a safe reliable flight is never the shoes you want to be in. I believe a big ethical situation in aviation recently was the crashes of the Boeing 737 Max. These disasters were caused by faulty designed systems and sensors not talking to each other and the lack of back systems playing off each other. In an article online by Root, Al. Barron the report read, "The design and certification of the [Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS] did not adequately consider the likelihood of loss of control of the aircraft," reads the report. "A fail-safe design concept and redundant system should have been necessary." (2019 Oct 25). I also believe it was a push to stay with the competition. If you look at the picture below I obtained from the article online "The Boeing 737 MAX: Lessons for Engineering Ethics"(Herkert, Borenstien & Miller 2020), you can see the timeline of when Airbus announced the update of their A320 and shortly after Boeing release of the update to the 737NG. It is hard-pressed for me to believe there is not some ethical dilemma going on here by the upper management worrying about their stocks falling because they would have to ground the fleet of 737 Max and not be competitive with Airbus. If more thought would have been brought into redundant systems or a better look at what caused the first crash the FAA and Boeing could have made it out of this situation a lot better. 







Root, A. (2019). A boeing 737 crash report was released. here's what it means for boeing stock. Barron's (Online), Retrieved from http://ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/trade-journals/boeing-737-crash-report-was-released-heres-what/docview/2308473645/se-2?accountid=27203

Herkert, J., Borenstein, J. & Miller, K. The Boeing 737 MAX: Lessons for Engineering Ethics. Sci Eng Ethics 26, 2957–2974 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-020-00252-y

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