It took less than three months after the fatal crash of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9, which lost a door in mid-flight on January 5, for Boeing’s boss to step down. American aircraft manufacturer CEO Dave Calhoun announced on Monday morning, March 25, his departure from the company at the end of 2024.
Along with this announcement came major changes in the management team. Stan Deal, the head of the commercial aviation division, left the company soon after and was replaced by Stephanie Pope, who was named chief of operations earlier this year and is in the running to one day succeed Mr. Calhoun.
“As you all know, the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident was a watershed moment for Boeing”Mr. Calhoun said in a letter sent to employees on Monday. “We must continue to respond to this accident with humility and full transparency. We must also demonstrate a total commitment to safety and quality at all levels of our business. »
Destructive quality process
The chairman of the board of directors, Larry Kellner, will not see his mandate renewed at the next general meeting. The board picked former Qualcomm boss Steve Mollenkopf to take over. Finding Dave Calhoun’s successor will be up to him.
Boeing had hoped to recover in 2024 after two 737 MAX 8 accidents in October 2018 (Lion Air in Indonesia, 189 deaths) and March 2019 (Ethiopian Airlines, 157 deaths) caused by faulty in-flight stabilization systems.
Dave Calhoun, formerly of General Electric, was hired in early 2020 to restore the image of a group heavily dependent on public military orders in Washington after these disasters. A crash in January 2024 sent it back to its lowest point. Boeing is the subject of dual civil investigations by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the FBI, which wrote to Alaska Airlines passengers that they may have been victims of a criminal offense.
The first results of the investigation are damaging for the American aircraft manufacturer. It turned out that the plane’s cap holder, delivered in September 2023 by a former subsidiary, Spirit Aerosystems, had been removed by a Boeing technician who wanted to repair the rivets, and had forgotten to put back the bolts used to secure it. Overall, Boeing’s quality process is a disaster. Out of eighty audits conducted by the FAA to verify its industrial processes, the company failed thirty-three times.
You have 36.58% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
