Three months of public catastrophes led to what many believe was a necessary first step in addressing the Boeing Co.’s severe quality and safety issues.
In a message to employees on Monday, much-scrutinized Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun announced he is stepping down from his role at the end of the year.
Calhoun said his decision was influenced largely by the fallout of the technical fiasco of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, where the door plug blew off the plane 16,000 feet above Oregon in January.
“I have been considering for some time, in discussion with our board of directors, the right time for a CEO transition at Boeing,” he wrote. “I want to share with you that I have decided this will be my last year as CEO of our great company, and I have notified the board of that decision.”
Calhoun, who became the CEO in 2020, acknowledged the Alaska Airlines fiasco was a “watershed moment” for the company, telling employees, “We must continue to respond to this accident with humility and complete transparency. We also must inculcate a total commitment to safety and quality at every level of our company.”
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Boeing might want to take that commitment to “transparency” more seriously.
As The Hill noted, the Federal Aviation Administration found Boeing’s safety culture “inadequate and confusing,” considering that, among many other issues, there seemed to be no records of the repairs made to the Alaska Airlines jet in question.
The Department of Justice also launched a criminal investigation after the company failed to produce records regarding the repair of the door plug on the doomed aircraft.
Indeed, The New York Times relayed that the internal failures of Boeing were so significant that the DOJ sent a message to the passengers of the Alaska Airlines flight telling them that they might have been victims of a federal crime.
Will Boeing be able to get a handle on quality and safety issues?
Never mind the public relations nightmare that Boeing has endured in the wake of the sudden death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, allegedly by suicide, though many, including his attorney and his brother, reportedly suspected foul play.
That said, Calhoun’s letter said he was not the only one departing from Boeing in the wake of its numerous PR disasters.
Another higher-up planning his departure is board chairman Larry Kellner, who will not seek re-election to the board either, according to the CEO.
Likewise, Stan Deal, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airlines, will be retiring, Calhoun wrote.
Deal will be replaced by Stephanie Pope, who has “30 years of experience at Boeing, including her successful tenure leading our global services business,” the letter said.
Now, credit where credit is due: Calhoun made an incredibly tough decision, and his decision was undoubtedly a good first step.
He said in his announcement that he pondered long and hard over the decision, seeing as these recent failures were “some of the most significant challenges our company and industry have ever faced in our 108-year history,” to put it lightly.
However, the company CEO, the chairman of the board and the CEO of Boeing Commercial Airlines didn’t work on the ground on their planes, nor did they have the responsibility of creating the records for their aircraft’s repairs.
Obviously, bad decisions made at the top trickle down to the employees working in these facilities, and it was commendable of Calhoun to assume responsibility for Boeing’s failures.
But that alone will not address the “inadequate and confusing” safety culture — to use the FAA’s words — that led to these catastrophic and public technical failures.
Boeing was not guilty of selling faulty televisions or squeaky bicycles.
A failure of those kinds of products would be an inconvenience.
But, when aircraft suffer dramatic technical failures, people could die.
Unless Boeing’s new management has decided to address these safety concerns in a serious way, Calhoun’s resignation will fail to signify much of anything.
