Boeing faces continued limits on the number of planes it manufactures as well as increased safety inspections after the US aviation regulator called on it to transform its safety culture.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) held a three-hour meeting on Thursday with senior Boeing executives, who outlined the US aircraft maker’s plan to resolve problems with safety and quality control.
Boeing has been under increasing pressure since a panel plugging a cabin door on a new Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 blew out during a flight on 5 January, forcing pilots to make an emergency landing and leaving a hole in the side of the plane. That prompted the FAA to temporarily ground all flights with that model.
The regulator stepped up its oversight of Boeing after the incident and in late February gave the company 90 days to develop a comprehensive plan to address “systemic quality control issues” and barred it from expanding 737 Max production after the January incident. Boeing presented its plan to the FAA on Thursday.
As a result, the FAA said its senior leaders will meet the manufacturer weekly to review its performance metrics, and Boeing must take measures such as strengthening its safety management system, including employee safety reporting. It must also increase internal audits of its production system.
The FAA said it wants more safety inspectors to be sent into Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems facilities, as well as having additional inspections at critical points of the production process. Boeing is also required to have a safety management system that ensures a structured approach to identify hazards and manage risk.
Mike Whitaker, the FAA administrator, said after the meeting that the regulator would continue its enhanced oversight of Boeing and its suppliers and hold the company “accountable every step of the way”.
He added: “Systemic change isn’t easy but in this case is absolutely necessary, and the work is never really done when it comes to the safety of the flying public.”
Dave Calhoun, Boeing’s chief executive, said in a statement that the company had presented to the FAA its plan to strengthen its safety management.
He said: “Many of these actions are under way and our team is committed to executing on each element of the plan. It is through this continuous learning and improvement process that our industry has made commercial aviation the safest mode of transportation. The actions we are taking today will further strengthen that foundation.”
The cap on production of the 737 Max is proving costly to Boeing, whose slowdowns in production can have a knock-on effect on US GDP. Boeing’s chief financial officer, Brian West, last week said the company will not generate cash during 2024. It has also faced delays in China while regulators reviewed batteries used in cockpit voice recorders.
Boeing has been under renewed scrutiny in the months since the door plug failure after a whistleblower in April testified in the US Senate that the manufacturer’s engineers had taken shortcuts that could cause further failures. The whistleblower alleged that Boeing retaliated against him for raising concerns. Boeing at the time denied the allegations of retaliation but acknowledged that it still had improvements to make to its culture.
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Boeing currently faces a US justice department investigation into whether the incident in January violated a previous settlement agreed with Washington after two 737 Max crashes, in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019, that killed 346 people.
The two crashes set off the biggest crisis in Boeing’s history, with regulators grounding Boeing’s bestselling 737 Max for nearly two years. The scandal caused orders of 737 Max to plunge, letting Boeing’s bitter European rival, Airbus, build a huge lead in the global aviation market – albeit one held back for several years by the coronavirus pandemic.
Airbus is aiming to increase the number of deliveries of new planes from 735 in 2023 to 800 this year. It has only managed that feat twice before, including a record 863 deliveries in 2019.
However, Airbus is facing difficulties in ramping up production whichcould result in delays in deliveries to some customers, Reuters reported on Friday. An Airbus spokesperson said the company’s objective to accelerate production of its bestselling A320 aircraft “has not changed” but acknowledged that “the operating environment is complex and not improving”.
