The United States has enjoyed years of extraordinarily safe air travel. While this is a remarkable feat, it shouldn’t take a viral video and loose bolts to invite tough questions for airplane manufacturers and the industry as a whole. The recent news of a door plug on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 blowing out after takeoff is alarming for all who fly. The resulting inspections of the Boeing 737 Max 9 fleet, which turned up loose bolts and similar issues in these planes, begs grave questions: How did this happen? Why didn’t we know about this? Why did it take a near disaster for these flaws to co…
