Boeing CEO admits error, says mid-air blowout 'can never happen again'
The fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Boeing 737-9 MAX, which was forced to make an emergency landing with a gap in the fuselage, is seen during its investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in Portland, Oregon, US, on January 7, 2024.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun on Tuesday addressed Friday's mid-air panel blowout from an Alaska Airlines jet, acknowledging the planemaker made a mistake and telling staff it would work with regulators to make sure it "can never happen again."
The statements were Boeing's first public acknowledgment of error since the incident on Friday left the 737 MAX 9 plane with a gaping hole.
Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, the two US carriers that use the temporarily grounded planes, have found loose parts on similar aircraft, raising fears such an incident could happen again.
In a separate meeting, Boeing told staff that findings of loose bolts in airplanes were being treated as a "quality control issue" and checks were underway at Boeing and supplier Spirit Aerosystems, sources familiar with the matter said.
Boeing has ordered its plants and those of its suppliers to ensure such problems are addressed and to carry out broader checks of systems and processes, they said.
"We’re going to approach this, number one, acknowledging our mistake," Calhoun told employees, according to an excerpt released by Boeing. "We’re going to approach it with 100 percent and complete transparency every step of the way."
Boeing shares fell 1.4 percent Tuesday as United canceled 225 daily flights, or 8 percent of its total, while Alaska canceled 109, or 18 percent. Similar cancellations were expected on Wednesday.
Calhoun also told Boeing employees the company will "ensure every next airplane that moves into the sky is in fact safe."
He praised the Alaska Airlines crew that swiftly moved to land the 737 MAX 9 plane with only minor injuries to the 171 passengers and six crew.
Calhoun, who was a Boeing board member when all MAX jets were grounded worldwide in 2019, paid tribute to Alaska Airlines for quickly grounding its 737 MAX 9 jets, adding he knew "how hard it is to ground planes, much less the fleet," the sources said.
Calhoun said the accident had shaken Boeing customers and "shook me to the bone," the sources quoted him saying.
Boeing has suffered numerous production issues since the full-blown grounding of the 737 MAX family in March 2019 that lasted 20 months, following a pair of crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed nearly 350 people.
