That a piece of the casing of a Boeing Max jumps into the air in mid-flight has consequences. This incident, recorded on an Alaska Airlines flight last January, is the main reason why Dave Calhoun, CEO of the American aerospace giant, announced this Monday that he will leave the position and the firm at the end of this year.
These turbulences mean that he does not walk alone. Board Chairman Larry Kellner will also walk out the door and step down after the annual meeting in May. He will be replaced by Steve Mollenkopf, who has served as head of Boeing since 2020.
And, in addition, Stan Deal, president and director of the commercial area, is leaving the company immediately. His position will be filled by Stephanie Pope, who held the position of head of the operations office, after taking the position of global services at Boeing
The resignations come after airlines and regulators increased scrutiny of the manufacturer following the Alaska Airlines incident, which lost a security door, which was supposed to be sealed, on a Boeing 737 Max 9, just minutes after taking off from an Oregon airport. Then there has been a cascade of cases, although none of the severity of that other, which forced an emergency landing due to cabin depressurization. No one was seriously injured, beyond shock. The door appeared in the garden of a house.
“As you know, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was a defining moment for Boeing,” Calhoun wrote to workers Monday. “We must continue to respond to this accident with humility and absolute transparency. We must also instill a total commitment to safety and quality at each and every level of our company,” he stressed.
“The world has its eyes on us and I know that this moment will make our company improve, rebuilding us with all the learning we have accumulated, while we work together to rebuild Boeing based on what has happened in recent years,” he said.
Last week, the CEO began scheduling a series of meetings with Boeing directors to express his displeasure over the lack of quality controls on manufactured airplanes and the low production outlook for the 737 Max.
For months Calhoun promised investors, customers of its aircraft and the general public that Boeing would put under control the countless quality problems that have arisen. Quite the opposite happened.
Calhoun was appointed to the top position in the company at the end of 2019 and took command at the beginning of 2020, after the expulsion of his predecessor, Dennis Mullenburg, for the mismanagement he carried out after two tragic accidents of the 737 Max (a previous model to 9) in 2018 and 2019 that left 346 dead. The planes of that model were parked for months in the hangars of all the airports due to the detection of serious problems in their computer systems.
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