Boeing has released hundreds of internal messages that contained harshly critical comments about the development of the 737 MAX, including one that said the plane was “designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys”.

The messages, disclosed on Thursday, January 9, show attempts to duck regulatory scrutiny with employees disparaging the plane, the company, the Federal Aviation Administration and foreign aviation regulators, Reuters reports.

In an instant messaging exchange on Feb. 8, 2018 – when the plane was in the air and eight months before the first of two fatal crashes – an employee asks another: “Would you put your family on a MAX simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn’t”.

The second employee responds: “No”.

The 737 MAX has been grounded since March after an Ethiopian Airlines flight nose-dived, just five months after similar Lion Air crash. The two disasters killed 346.

In particular, some of the communications reveal efforts by Boeing to avoid making pilot simulator training - an expensive and time-consuming process - a requirement for the 737 MAX.