As usual, there’s a lot going on in the world, but much of it is in flux. This is the best I can do for this week. I hope you have more links!
NTSB assigns blame in Alaska Air case to Boeing and FFA
In January 2024, an Alaska Airlines flight experienced an emergency when a ‘plugged’ door—one never intended for actual use on this particular Boeing 737 Max 9—shook loose from its few remaining bolts and blew out in mid-flight. Fortunately, no one was killed, and most injuries were minor. But investigators discovered that a number of bolts had been removed during previous repairs of the aircraft and not replaced.
Although the cause of the incident has been known for some time, the National Transportation Safety Board released its official report this week, which placed the blame on both Boeing (the aircraft’s manufacturer) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The report pointed to “Boeing’s failure in documenting the work done on the door plug - which led crews to overlook the missing bolts.” The report also noted that Boeing has a “broader pattern of safety issues, including unapproved part removals, inadequate employee training and a flawed process of handling change.”
But the report also blamed the FAA for a lack of oversight—“failing to catch […] Boeing’s ongoing compliance and operations issues.” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy noted that “the FAA is the absolute last barrier of defense when it comes to ensuring aviation safety.” The FAA did cap Boeing’s production of its 737 MAX aircraft at 38 planes per month after the 2024 door plug blowout. However, since the company only recently reached that benchmark again in May, for the first time since 2020, it is not clear that the cap has had any effect (at least by itself) on improving production safety.
In response to the report, the FAA stated:
We are actively monitoring Boeing’s performance and meet weekly with the company to review its progress and any challenges it’s facing in implementing necessary changes. We have a full complement of safety inspectors in Boeing’s facilities, and they are conducting more targeted audits and inspections.
Man vs Nature at CA waterfall; Nature wins again
It’s not clear why a group of men decided to jump into a remote waterfall in a challenging wilderness area to the west of Lake Tahoe, but they did not survive. Surprisingly, the men were middle-aged and reportedly part of a religious group which had “started the day with a religious mass” before they left on their hike on Wednesday, June 18th. The victims have been identified as Matthew Anthony (age 44) of New York, and Matthew Schoenecker (age 50) and Valentino Creus (age 59) of Los Angeles.
Evidently Schoenecker—who had been a diving champion in high school—was familiar with Rattlesnake Falls, which the group reached about four hours into their hike. But for whatever reason, it was Creus who decided to jump in first, despite the fact that the group had just eaten. It was only when Creus began struggling that Schoenecker and then Anthony jumped in to try to help him. When all three had disappeared under the water and failed to surface, one of the other hikers triggered an “SOS feature” on his phone.
The surviving members of the group were rescued by helicopter, but it took days (partly due to difficult weather conditions) before search teams were able to find the bodies of the three who went into the water. All three were found nearly 50 feet under the surface of the waterfall’s pool, likely dragged down by intense hydraulic forces. This video has an interview with the diver who found them; it also shows what the waterfall looks like:
Landscaper throws party while clients are gone
It’s a stereotypical scenario, both in films and real life: a teenager throws a house party while his or parents are out of town. But in this case, it wasn’t the teen who lived there who threw the party, but rather the owners’ “lawn maintenance” worker. Michael Brown (age 37) decided that it would be fine to throw a graduation party for his son at the Weddington, North Carolina mansion belonging to his clients, who were on vacation.
As is typical in this situation, the cops were called as a result of “noise complaints and traffic hazards.” Lt. James Maye of the Union County Sheriff’s Department reported what responding officers found: “It was mostly teenagers and young adults. We estimate anywhere from three to four hundred people were at the house, and a lot of underage drinking was going on.” They also discovered that Brown—who reportedly claimed initially to be the property owner, and then that his grandparents owned the property (neither of which was true)—had collected over $3,000 in “entry fees” from attendees, which he said were “for security reasons.”
Despite having been charged with breaking and entering, second-degree trespassing, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, injury to real property and obtaining property by false pretenses, Brown seems completely unrepentant and denies he did anything wrong. He characterizes his only wrongdoing as possibly having “broken some rules set by the property owners.” He also denies that he lied to police about “who stayed there or who owned the place. It wasn’t my right to tell them that, because it’s private property.”
Brown seems sure that when the owners come back, he “can continue to build my relationship and we can move forward.” I haven’t been able to find out anything about the owners—including whether they might possibly have given permission for some type of party—but a number of locals appear to have believed the property was abandoned. So there will probably ultimately be more to this story, and it will probably become weirder yet, but this is all I have for now.
Got news?
My elders would have sagely nodded their heads and remarked that the spirit of the waterfall was 'hungry'. We have a waterfall here that periodically someone slips and falls from horsing around and even a few suicides over the years. There are big fences and warning signs around said waterfall these days but of course there are still those who ignore those. However no one to my knowledge has jumped into the waterfall just for fun! I wonder if social media clips have made things like jumping into a waterfall look more attractive and 'doable'. All this virtual reality is doing something to our brains imo.
Thanks for the heads up - we’re leaving for a month while our kitchen is being demolished and rebuilt -leaving this story for my contractor… 🤣