Boeing shares updates on safety plan one year after door plug incident
Image from the NTSB investigation of the Jan. 5 accident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on a Boeing 737-9 MAX. Captured on Jan. 7. Via NTSB Flickr
(NEW YORK) — One year after a door plug blew off an Alaska Airlines jet, Boeing said it is “on track with progress showing tangible improvements” in its efforts turn the struggling aerospace giant around and produce safe airplanes.
Boeing shared an update on Friday morning about the company’s safety and quality plan, which it had developed shortly after the Alaska Airlines incident in January 2024.
The plan was a key part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s increased oversight, featuring dedicated efforts to address the company’s systemic safety and quality-control issues.
The FAA said that this was “not a one-year project” in its assessment of the progress that Boeing has made to date.
In its update, Boeing highlighted several key improvements it has made including: reducing defects in 737 fuselage assembly at Spirit AeroSystems by increasing inspection points and introducing a customer quality approval process; addressing more than 70% of action items in commercial airplane production based on employee feedback during quality stand-down sessions; and applying “move ready” criteria across final assembly for the 737 and 787, as well as parts of the 767 and the 777, to manage traveled work and mitigate risks.
The plane maker also reported adding hundreds of hours of new curriculum to quality and safety training programs for its employees. It has introduced new random quality audits of documented removals in high frequency areas to ensure process compliance. Additionally, the company said it has mapped and prepared thousands of governance documents and work instructions for revision.
The company added that it has invested in its Speak Up program to strengthen confidentiality and keep employees informed about the status and resolution of their reports. This comes after numerous Boeing whistleblowers have raised concerns in recent years about the company’s safety and workplace culture practices.
On Jan. 5, 2024, a defective door plug on an Alaska Airlines plane opened up mid-flight, depressurizing the cabin and exposing passengers to open air thousands of feet above the ground.
No one was seriously injured and the plane safely made an emergency landing.
Reflecting on Boeing’s progress one year later, FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker said in a blog post that the company is “working to make progress executing its comprehensive plan in the areas of safety, quality improvement, and effective employee engagement and training.”
“We’re actively monitoring the results and keeping a close eye on work at key Boeing facilities,” Whitaker said.
He outlined the company’s progress, saying: “FAA safety experts continually review the effectiveness of the changes; senior FAA leaders meet with Boeing weekly to review their performance metrics, progress, and any challenges they’re facing; we have conducted an unprecedented number of unannounced audits; and we conduct monthly status reviews with Boeing executives to monitor progress.”
“Our enhanced oversight is here to stay,” Whitaker added.
“But this is not a one-year project,” Whitaker continued, emphasizing that Boeing must prioritize safety over profits. He said the effort will “require sustained effort and commitment from Boeing, and unwavering scrutiny on our part.”
He also reiterated the agency’s support toward the National Transportation Safety Board in its investigation of last year’s Alaska Airlines incident.
(NEW YORK) — The prosecution and defense are preparing for Monday’s closing arguments in the Daniel Penny trial as it comes to a close after a break for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Penny put Jordan Neely, 30, a homeless man, in a fatal 6 minute-long chokehold after Neely boarded a subway car acting erratically.
Penny, 25, is charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide in the May 2023 choking death of Neely on the New York City subway. He pleaded not guilty.
Here are the key takeaways from the trial so far:
The prosecution’s argument
Prosecutors argue that Penny, a former Marine trained in martial arts, should have known that his chokehold maneuver was turning fatal, arguing that Penny held onto Neely “for far too long” — more than 5 minutes after the train pulled into the station and passengers were able to exit.
Neely entered a moderately crowded subway car on an uptown F train at the Second Avenue stop and began yelling and moving erratically, when Penny put Neely in a chokehold. Thirty seconds later, the train arrived at the next station and essentially all the passengers left the train car.
Footage of the interaction between Penny and Neely, which began about 2 minutes after the incident started, captures Penny holding Neely for about 4 minutes and 57 seconds on a relatively empty train with a couple of passengers nearby.
“He was aware of the risk his actions would kill Mr. Neely and did it anyway,” Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran said in her opening statements. “Jordan Neely took his last breaths on the dirty floor of an uptown F train.”
Prosecutors further argued that while Penny may be an “honorable veteran” and “nice young man,” he used too much force for too long and was reckless with Neely’s life because “he didn’t recognize his humanity.”
She later continued, “Under the law, deadly physical force such as a chokehold is permitted only when it is absolutely necessary and for only as long as is absolutely necessary. And here, the defendant went way too far.”
The second-degree manslaughter charge only requires prosecutors to prove Penny acted recklessly, not intentionally, according to prosecutors.
The defense’s argument
Defense attorney Thomas Kenniff countered that Penny sought to protect passengers, claiming he was responding to Neely’s “unhinged rage.”
“This is a case about a young man who did for others what we would want someone to do for us,” Kenniff said. “It doesn’t make him a hero, but it doesn’t make him a killer.”
Penny claims to have heard Neely say “I will kill,” said Kenniff, who has said there was no opportunity for his client to de-escalate or stop Neely from the harm he was threatening.
Borrowing from “a bit” of martial arts training he received in the Marine Corps, Penny put Neely into a chokehold without intending to kill him, the defense said, but to hold him until police arrived.
“His conduct was consistent with someone who values human life and that’s why he was trying to protect it so fiercely,” the defense attorney said.
Kenniff insisted his client “does not want to use any more force than is necessary,” but Neely “aggressively resisted” while in Penny’s grip. He said Penny thought Neely, who police say was unarmed, might have a weapon as he waited for police.
Daniel Penny’s interview with police
Jurors saw body camera video that had not yet been publicly released of Penny’s initial encounter with police, more than 4 minutes after he let go of Neely.
On the first day of the trial, the jury saw the officer’s body-worn camera footage that captured the attempts to save Neely and showed his lifeless body on the subway floor.
When searched for weapons, the only thing officers found in Neely’s pockets was a muffin. Nothing else was found in the jacket, Officer Teodoro Tejada confirmed.
Penny is heard saying, “I put him out,” when the officer asked what happened. To prosecutors, the footage — which had not been seen publicly until the trial — is evidence Penny disregarded Neely’s basic humanity.
The defense used Tejada’s testimony to suggest to the jury Penny did not behave like a criminal by fleeing the scene.
“Did he appear cooperative?” the lawyer asked.
“Yes,” the officer replied.
“It didn’t appear that he had anything to hide?” Kenniff asked.
“No,” Tejada said.
Video of Jordan Neely’s subway chokehold death
In a video taken by then-17-year-old high school student bystander Ivette Rosario, a witness can be heard calling out to Penny, “He’s dying…you need to let him go.” Others are heard yelling on the clip to “get the cops!”
Rosario testified that she did not hear anyone say that Neely is “dying” at the time and it’s not clear whether Penny heard it either.
Man who helped restrain Neely testifies A Bronx man who helped Penny restrain Neely ”jumped in and tried to help” so Penny could release his chokehold, according to the man’s testimony.
Eric Gonzalez, who is seen in video footage holding Neely by the wrist, boarded the subway and noticed Penny holding down Neely “with his legs around his waist and his arm around his neck.” Gonzalez testified he did not know why Penny was restraining Neely but he heard people yelling to call for the police.
Gonzalez said he waved his hands in front of Penny’s face to get his attention.
“I said, ‘I will grab his hands so you can let go,’” Gonzalez told the jury. “Just giving him a different option to hold his arm — well, to restrain him until the police came.”
Prosecutors asked Gonzalez to clarify: “If I held his arm down, he could let go of his neck,” he said.
Gonzalez said he watched Neely’s body go limp and let go of him before Penny did the same.
“I tried to shake Jordan Neely to get a response out of him, feel for a pulse, and then I walked away,” Gonzalez said.
Conflicting testimony about the cause of death
Dr. Cynthia Harris of the city’s Chief Medical Examiner’s Office conducted Neely’s autopsy in 2023 and ruled Neely’s death a homicide, with the cause of death as “Compression of neck (chokehold).”
She testified at the trial that “the consensus was unanimous” in the medical examiner’s office that Neely had died from the chokehold, according to Associated Press reporting: “There are no alternative reasonable explanations,” she said.
Forensic pathologist Satish Chundru disputed that determination in his testimony in defense of Penny, according to the AP, arguing that Neely died from “combined effects” of his schizophrenia, synthetic marijuana, a blood condition and his efforts to struggle against Penny.
“In your opinion, did Mr. Penny choke Mr. Neely to death?” defense lawyer Steven Raiser asked, according to AP.
“No,” replied Chundru.
Prosecutors argued that Chundru’s testimony departed from medical literature and his own opinion in similar cases, but Chundru testified that the cases were not comparable to this one, according to the AP.
Marine Corps instructor who trained Penny testifies
According to the AP, Joseph Caballer, the combat instructor who trained Penny, said that Penny was taught how to knock a person unconscious — but that the technique could kill someone if held too long. He argued that someone performing the technique is supposed to let go when the person is rendered unconscious, and testified that Penny used the chokehold in an “improper” manner when asked by prosecutors.
However, the defense claims Penny did not use a strong enough hold to kill Penny, the AP reports.
(NEW YORK) — Presidential immunity does not protect Donald Trump from having to pay tens of millions of dollars in damages after being held liable for defaming magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, a lawyer for Carroll told a federal appeals court in a filing Monday.
After being awarded an $83.3 million defamation judgment from a jury last year, Carroll on Monday urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to uphold the judgment against Trump, after Trump asked the court to toss out the verdict because he had immunity as president.
“Dissatisfied with the outcome of the judicial process, Trump now asks this Court to set aside that jury verdict on the theory that he was actually immune from judicial review all along,” Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan wrote in the filing.
In 2023, a jury held Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, awarding Carroll $5 million in damages. A year later, a different jury in a separate trial ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83 million in damages for defaming her in a 2022 social media post in which he called her allegations “a Hoax and a lie” and said “This woman is not my type!”
A federal appeals court upheld the $5 million judgment in December, and Trump’s appeal of the $83 million judgement is ongoing.
In September, Trump attorney D. John Sauer — who Trump nominated in November to serve as the new solicitor general — told a federal appeals court that the $83 million judgment should be thrown out based on a flawed jury instruction, a series of “highly prejudicial errors” during the trial, and because presidential immunity protects Trump from liability for public statements made as president.
“Presidential immunity forecloses any liability here and requires the complete dismissal of all claims,” Sauer wrote.
In her reply brief filed Monday, Kaplan pushed back against Trump’s assertion of immunity, arguing that statements Trump made about Carroll as president would clearly fall outside of his official responsibilities.
“If there were ever a case where immunity does not shield a President’s speech, this one is it,” Kaplan wrote. “Donald Trump was not speaking here about a governmental policy or a function of his responsibilities as President. He was defaming Carroll because of her revelation that many years before he assumed office, he sexually assaulted her.”
Carroll’s attorney argued that the $83 million judgement was justified to deter Trump from further defamatory statements, a risk that Kaplan said the jury saw firsthand. Trump attended most days of the 2024 trial, criticizing Carroll as a liar from his seat in the courtroom and sparring with the judge who oversaw the case.
“Throughout the trial, the jury had a front-row seat to Trump’s relentless campaign of malice, including his repeated defamation of Carroll at press conferences he held and in statements he posted on social media while the trial was ongoing,” Kaplan wrote.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
(DELANO, Calif.) — A convicted murderer remained on the loose Tuesday and was the subject of a massive manhunt in Central California, where authorities allege he escaped from a prison van while being transferred to a courthouse.
Cesar Hernandez, who was convicted of first-degree murder in Los Angeles County in 2019 and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, escaped Monday morning in the Central San Joaquin Valley town of Delano.
“The public should not confront this suspect as he is considered dangerous,” the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said in a social media post Tuesday afternoon.
The CDCR released new details on 34-year-old Hernandez’s escape. Authorities said Hernandez was being driven to a court appearance at the Kern County Superior Court in downtown Delano when he escaped around 10:40 a.m. local time on Monday.
“Upon arrival, Hernandez evaded staff custody, jumped out of the van, and is currently at large,” the CDCR said in a statement.
Hernandez was last seen wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and white thermals, the CDCR said. He is described as 5-foot-5 and weighing about 161 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes.
Hernandez was convicted of murder in Los Angeles County in 2019 and sentenced to 25 years to life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder, a second-strike offense, according to the CDCR.
Multiple law enforcement agencies — including agents from CDCR’s Special Services Unit, the California Highway Patrol and the Delano and McFarland police departments — were continuing to search for Hernandez Tuesday afternoon in the Delano area, about 33 miles north of Bakersfield.
In a safety alert to the Central California community, authorities urged people to “report any suspicious activity or sightings immediately.”
