Flying Blind

A behind-the-scenes look at the dysfunction that contributed to the 2018 and 2019 crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX.

Boeing is a century-old titan of industry. It played a major role in the early days of commercial flight, World War II bombing missions, and moon landings. But in 2018 and 2019, two crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 killed 346 people, exposing a shocking pattern of malfeasance, leading to the biggest crisis in the company’s history―and one of the costliest corporate scandals ever.

Flying Blind is the definitive exposé of the disasters that transfixed the world. Drawing from exclusive interviews with current and former employees of Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration; industry executives and analysts; and family members of the victims, it reveals how a broken corporate culture paved the way for catastrophe. It shows how, in the race to beat the competition and reward top executives, Boeing skimped on testing, pressured employees to meet unrealistic deadlines, and convinced regulators to put planes into service without properly equipping them or their pilots for flight. It examines how the company, once a treasured American innovator, became obsessed with the bottom line, putting shareholders over customers, employees, and communities.

By Bloomberg investigative journalist Peter Robison, who covered Boeing as a beat reporter during the company’s fateful merger with McDonnell Douglas in the late '90s, this is the story of a business gone wildly off course.