Current Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun stated he will be stepping down from the position at the end of the year due to ongoing safety problems. In late February, the FAA (U.S. Federal Aviation Administration) told Boeing they need to develop a comprehensive plan to address “systematic quality control issues” within 90 days. Calhoun claimed that Boeing is fully prepared to provide an action plan going forward with the Boeing company. “We have a clear picture of what needs to be done,” Calhoun states.
Two months ago, the Alaska Airlines flight 1282 on the Boeing 737-MAX 9 sparked popularity after a door was ripped off the aircraft mid-flight due to four critical bolts being improperly installed. Since then, all the Boeing 737-MAX 9 aircrafts have been grounded. Though, this isn’t the first time that the Boeing 737-MAX plane variants have been grounded for disaster striking on board.
In 2018, Indonesian flight Lion Air Flight 610 on the Boeing 737-MAX 8 nosedived into the Java Sea 13 minutes after taking off, killing all 189 people on board. Additionally in 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on the Boeing 737-MAX 8 had a similar fate. Nosediving into the ground 6 minutes after taking off, killing all 157 people on board. The reasoning behind the disaster was the MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System), which is a flight stabilizing feature created by Boeing themselves.
According to former Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, the MCAS installation on the Boeing 737-MAX 8’s were not disclosed to pilots at all. Muilenburg claimed that the MCAS system was only there to be “fundamentally embedded in handling the qualities of the aircraft” and no further training to pilots would be necessary. Clearly, this served untrue quickly. As pilots were overridden by the MCAS system to which they did not know how to take back control. Assumingly, they didn’t know what to do or what was going wrong because of the nonexistent disclosure of the MCAS.
It seems as if the Boeing 737-MAX was doomed from the start. In early 2011, Boeing went head on with competing aircraft manufacturer Airbus after they released the manufacturing of the A320neo (New Engine Option), a fuel-efficient jet in late 2010. For years, Boeing was planning to create a completely new fuel-efficient aircraft. Unfortunately, Airbus beat Boeing to this creation. In a panic and need to compete, Boeing decided to take the original 1965 Boeing 737 planes and upgrade the fuel-efficiency, thus introducing the Boeing 737-MAX variants. Boeing claimed that the idea of a new aircraft would take a decade, but the 737-MAX was up in the air only 6 years after its initial conversation in 2011.
The future of the Boeing 737-MAX variants is uncertain. Concerns and question marks around Boeings values within the company have put Boeing flyers in a tough spot regarding their own safety.
