A plane crash in India from just a few hours ago. You've got to give you a warning here. What you're about to see is disturbing. This video just came into our newsroom, and CBS news confirmed team has verified that it is real. You're seeing the aircraft there within one minute of departing and taking off. [00:00:19] It descends behind a building and then a huge fireball. An Air India flight to London crashed, which you just saw in that horrifying footage. 240 passengers and crew were on board, and so far only one survivor has [00:00:38] been reported to have survived the crash. But everyone else who was on the plane is presumed to be dead. Now, dozens of other civilians were killed in the area where the plane crashed, making the situation that was already horrific, already tragic, even worse. And critically, the plane itself was a Boeing 787 model. [00:00:59] And Boeing's history on safety issues is, you know, far from good. Let's just put it that way. Now, we should note that 787 model or the 787 model in particular, had a very good safety record before today. It launched in 2011. [00:01:16] No 787 have suffered a fatal incident until now. However, the the lever reports the following. So Boeing 787 series planes were grounded for four months worldwide due to a lithium [00:01:32] battery that caught on fire during a Japan Airlines flight, back in 2013. This is January or January 7th, 2013. A subsequent government investigation found Boeing failed to incorporate adequate design requirements, and that the FAA failed to uncover [00:01:49] this design vulnerability. As part of its review and approval of Boeing's Electrical Power System certification plan and proposed methods of compliance. So in 2005. This is very relevant. [00:02:05] In 2005, the Federal Aviation Administration actually began to phase in a program, really smart program, get a load of this that would allow Boeing to conduct its own safety inspections. [00:02:21] And I'm sure that worked out real well, didn't it? Because corporations would never want to cut corners to save money. Right? And it's good to have criminals conduct investigations on themselves. Not saying everyone at Boeing is a criminal. I'm saying it's. [00:02:37] I'm drawing a comparison to the absurdity of regulating industries this way or regulating corporations this way, knowing full well that their number one priority is profit maximization. [00:02:52] So you won't be surprised to hear what influenced that decision by the FAA. By the way, in the lead up to the FAA establishing the self inspection program, Boeing spent nearly $26 million lobbying Congress on reforms and funding for the FAA, commercial aviation issues, [00:03:12] and other issues. So how did that turn out? How has this program turned out? You know, the self-regulation program that the FAA rolled out? Well, since 2011, there have been at least 14 government reports, surveys and whistleblower notices warning the FAA of problems with the Self-inspection program. [00:03:30] Concerns include a lack of federal oversight for Boeing, understaffing of safety engineers at the FAA office overseeing Boeing's self-inspection work, undue pressure from Boeing, management of employees in the [00:03:46] Self-inspection program, and other issues. Additionally, several whistleblowers have raised concerns about the 787. Specifically, former Boeing quality control manager John Barnett said that he once saw [00:04:02] discarded metal shavings near wiring for the flight controls that could have cut the wires and caused a catastrophe. He also noted problems with up to a quarter of the oxygen systems on Boeing's 787 planes. [00:04:17] Richard Cuevas, a mechanic at storm, a contractor for Boeing manufacturing partner spirit AeroSystems, claims that he witnessed holes that were improperly drilled into the forward pressure bulkheads of 787 planes at Spirit's Wichita, Kansas facility in 2023. [00:04:37] And finally, according to CNN, the bulkhead is vital for keeping the plane structure intact while it's airborne. Cuevas claims that he filed a complaint in October of 2023 to Boeing and Spirit about substandard manufacturing [00:04:54] and maintenance processes. He witnessed and was fired. Was fired just a few months later, according to the complaints filed by his attorneys and obtained by CNN. The regulatory body, our lawmakers, our federal government agencies, [00:05:11] absolute joke, absolute joke, totally captured by corporate interests. And so like, look, was on one hand, I actually really do understand [00:05:26] Trump's base and their disdain for federal government agencies. You know, these bodies or these agencies with unelected officials who make decisions that have an impact on all of our lives, you know. And so when you see the FAA roll out this ridiculous, I mean, what is it? [00:05:44] It's supposed to be a regulation when you're having a corporation regulate itself, when they roll something like that out, it screams to the rest of the country, we are captured by corporate interests. - Anyway, what do you think? - Yeah. I mean, obviously, it's not an accident that people feel the way [00:06:03] that they do about, federal agencies. A sees a lot of them get defunded like a mug. And then, you know, basically a lot of Republican administrations and some Democratic administrations, too. But like, you basically make the agency a lot worse. [00:06:19] You campaign on government not being able to work. You make the government work worse by, you know, understaffing it, underfunding it. And then when it can't be competent, you say, see, look, I told you, government doesn't work, right. And that vicious cycle happens perpetually. [00:06:38] And, you know, like, if we really took the FAA seriously, it'd be funded to the hilt and we'd, like, be like it would be handling these safety inspections. But at a certain point, a government agency, after they get lobbied and they're already underfunded to be like, yo, this company wants to offload, you know, [00:06:58] our own responsibilities to themselves. They're going to say yes, even as stupid as the plan is for, you know, a safety inspection regime to go from a federal government with power to like, you know, prosecute, you find the hell out of you. [00:07:17] Pass laws against you like a real like powerful body regulating this thing to the company itself. Like, I mean, it's absurd on its face. And Boeing in particular, you know, when we had that, that those crashes recently and everybody was like, what the hell happened to Boeing? [00:07:35] Oh. What happened? They had a corporate merger. The new overlords decided that innovation being excellent Boeing for people who don't know used to be like a model American company like known for hyper competence innovation. [00:07:52] One of the most well respected and incredibly ran companies in America. We're talking about flagship blue chip company. Then they do a corporate merger. And the corporate overlords are like, we don't care about being blue chip. [00:08:07] We don't want to be excellent. We want to make money at all costs. The only thing that matters is the bottom line. Literally nothing else. And you know, that's our country. That's our society. That's what we we teach everybody every single day that it doesn't matter. [00:08:24] Nothing else matters besides making money. Profits over human lives, you know. And look, I want to be clear. Obviously, this crash just happened. We don't know for sure what caused the crash. What I do know is that there's been quite a bit of controversy surrounding Boeing [00:08:42] because of the increased numbers of plane crashes, you know, weird malfunctions that have been happening on its planes. You know, I just shared the details about how a fleet of Boeing planes had to be grounded because of these safety concerns and issues. [00:08:58] This is a huge problem. And so if you're going to pursue a system in which corporations police themselves, you're going to see more and more cases like this. You actually need a regulatory body to ensure that these safety measures [00:09:14] are taken, that these planes are manufactured well so they don't run into problems when they're mid-air. And unfortunately, it doesn't appear that that's the case at this moment. Now the vast majority of flights obviously happen with no issues. It's just that the increase we've been experiencing in these, tragic accidents [00:09:34] and mishaps, it puts a lot of fear in people's minds, and I don't blame them. I mean, I think about it now every time I board a plane, and I've been boarding planes more and more lately for work, and I don't want to have that anxiety. I don't think people should have to deal with that anxiety when they're boarding a plane about to take a trip. [00:09:51] Anyway, so we'll give you updates once we learn a little more about what could have caused that that crash. But just totally tragic story. I mean, hundreds of people are dead, and I think it could it potentially could have been prevented. [00:10:06] Every time you ring the bell, an angel gets its wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.