Valhalla Air is continuing to fly its Fortuna 3000 Intercontinental jet, touted by the airline’s CEO Goran Pekarchuk as “the world’s best commercial aircraft,” despite its having been grounded in 2014 after several engine failures. For still-unknown reasons, the turbine engine’s ultra-lightweight carbon fibre blades crack and break in midflight. This disrupts engine flow and requires engine shutdown. Some suspect that the company responsible for manufacturing these parts, Mexico’s Power Tech Corporation, is trying to save time and cut costs at the expense of quality.

Racing against European rival Nimbus Air to bring its new product to the skies, the 3000’s manufacturer, Fortuna Aeronautics, hastily reinforced the blades on affected aircraft; conducted quick, semi-scientific tests convincing the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) the blade was safe; and acquired that regulator’s approval to re-launch the 3000. This all occurred before the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had finished its incident investigation. The NTSB responded with a stern letter urging more guidance from independent experts and more stringent and standardized verification procedures for aircraft components.

Despite the band-aid solution, the 3000 Intercontinental is applauded by environmentalists like Eveline Ryall, who praises its enhanced fuel efficiency and reduced carbon emissions. “In a world where three to six percent of greenhouse gases come from jet exhaust, the 3000 Intercontinental is a step in the right direction.”

Interviewed London-Toronto passengers, like Hamida Barzun, gushed over the 3000’s in-flight entertainment system and interior design while dismissing safety concerns. “If there were problems, Transport Canada would have intervened.”

Valhalla Air has welcomed the latest addition to its fleet with an extravagant marketing campaign. In one video, First Officer Andre Pierre says 3000 Intercontinental passengers “just go, Wow.” (“They’ll say the same thing when flames start shooting from the turbines over the Atlantic,” quipped the Globe and Mail’s Sheldon Blumfeld, who lambasted the ads and dubbed the Fortuna aircraft “the Misfortuna.”)

Marketing professor Caitlin Harwood labels the 3000 Intercontinental “a flawed product, flawlessly marketed.” She notes how Valhalla Air’s videos shrewdly ignore overseas outsourcing while emphasizing its made-in-Canada components. “It’s a case study in the triumph of marketing over matter.”