Untimely Departures

We sometimes think that the Internet and all the technology that surrounds it is a mature system, and forget that it is still very much the Wild Wild West. Case in point, Boeing’s announcement this week about being willing to change the name of the 737 “MAX” to “anything but that”. In the past, chances are such a rebranding could never have worked. The BOAC Comet jetliner, the Douglas DC-9 jetliner, and a handful of other airplanes such as the passenger version of the DC-10/L-1011 were never able to recover from the reputation loss. Boeing, perhaps, will find the story very different as they ask “anyone” for input into what to call the largest version of the 737. Should they throw enough money at the Internet, what they will experience will be influencers and the mechanics of search results and social media burying the memory of the avionics issues as their new name and new news of other sorts pushes the MAX out of our memories. Think back to some of the huge news stories you’ve heard in the last few years. Are people still trying to recover from Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Floods and other disasters from the last few years, all over the World? Of course they are, and of course we’ve mostly forgotten them. I would say that those who lost their lives via MAX crashes, so mourned Worldwide by multitudes, will fade away except in the minds and hearts of those closest to them. So it goes.