Flying Blind

Author Peter Robison
Narrator Feodor Chin
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Publish Date 18 November 2021
Run Time 10 hours and 46 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Aerospace and aviation technology, Aircraft and aviation, Business ethics and social responsibility.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Boeing's story is the corporate scandal that's transfixed the world like none since the bankruptcy of Enron and the BP oil spill.

In examining the history of the 737, a highly-regarded plane that Boeing's new management degraded with cost-focused mandates, Flying Blind explores how Boeing skimped on testing in the race to match a competing plane from Airbus, outsourced software work to poorly paid graduates in India and convinced the US Federal Aviation Authority to put the MAX into service without requiring pilots to undergo simulator training.

Dramatically framed around the 737 MAX crashes, Flying Blind is the definitive exposé that for the first time tells the larger, decades-long story of how a corrupt corporate culture paved the way for the cataclysm.

© Peter Robison 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

Vividly written and meticulously researched, Flying Blind is a story everyone – every consumer, every citizen, every worker in every industry – needs to read.

Diana B. Henriques, New York Times bestselling author of The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust

Peter Robison’s compelling and richly reported Flying Blind is about so much more than the sad decline of Boeing and the tragic mistakes that led to the 737 Max disaster. It’s also the urgent story of how the almighty profit motive supplanted a culture of engineering excellence in boardrooms across America and the avoidable calamity that has impacted all of us as a result.

Brad Stone, New York Times bestselling author The Everything Store

The astoundingly well reported and beautifully told story of the downfall of what was once a great American company … a must-read.

Bethany McLean, New York Times bestselling author of The Smartest Guys in the Room

Flying Blind is superb reporting in service of a riveting story … As you turn each page in growing disbelief and anger, I guarantee it will keep you reading late into the night.

Kurt Eichenwald, New York Times bestselling author of Conspiracy of Fools and The Informant

Flying Blind is a gripping narrative and required reading for anyone who wants to understand how one of America’s mightiest corporations veered so badly off course.

Sheelah Kolhatkar, New Yorker staff writer and New York Times bestselling author of Black Edge

The most affecting parts of this book are Robinson’s portraits of those bereaved by the subsequent crashes, and their battle for accountability from a company that tried to pin the blame on foreign pilots’ incompetence. This is a compelling, deeply reported account, written in crisp, controlled anger. It is an indictment not just of one of America’s most celebrated companies, but of an entire era.

Financial Times

An authoritative, gripping and finely detailed narrative that charts the decline of one of the great American companies…Robison homes in on crucial moments during the eight years it took to design, certify and produce the 737 Max, revealing how at each turn, a fixation on profits led Boeing employees to make a series of catastrophic choices.

New York Times

The long train of events that led to the tragedies – and the subsequent reputational and financial trashing of one of America’s biggest companies – is expertly dissected in Flying Blind…. A ‘bottom-line mindset’ prevailed. In rich detail, Mr Robison chronicles the shortcomings of that approach at a firm where safety should be paramount.

The Economist

A startling investigation of the corporate blunders behind the tragedies that claimed the lives of 346 passengers.

The Times

A disturbing account that will return much-deserved scrutiny both to Boeing and to its regulator.

Wall Street Journal

Chilling…A vital and enraging portrait of an avoidable tragedy.

Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

A remarkable look at corporate culture’s impact on consumer safety, Flying Blind is a captivating and unsettling portrait of Boeing and American business.

Booklist (starred review)

[A] revealing exposé…A damning, highly readable account of a once-great company brought to its knees by bad leadership.

Kirkus

A gripping tale…Robison’s fast-paced account serves as an excellent case study of business mismanagement…and will have broad appeal as a story about the rise and fall of a historic business.

Library Journal (starred review)

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