Top Boeing Leadership To Leave Company After Alaska Airlines Flight Loses Door Plug Midflight

 Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will leave the company by the end of the year as it changes leadership amid quality and safety concerns with Boeing aircraft. 

Other top leaders are also leaving the company, with board chair Larry Kellner resigning from his position in May and Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal retiring immediately. Boeing Chief Operation Officer Stephanie Pope will take over from Deal, while Steve Mollenkopf will become the company’s new board chair. 

The announcement comes after the company faced scrutiny after a Boeing plane’s door plug blew off midflight during an Alaska Airlines flight carrying more than 170 passengers in January, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing. 

“As you all know, the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident was a watershed moment for Boeing,” Calhoun said in a letter to staff. “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.”

“The eyes of the world are on us, and I know we will come through this moment a better company, building on all the learnings we accumulated as we worked together to rebuild Boeing over the last number of years,” he added. “We have been working together for the last five years to address some of the most significant challenges our company and industry have ever faced in our 108-year history. I am confident that the way we have confronted these challenges, and how we are responding to this specific moment, is establishing standards for future generations of employees and will be woven into the fabric of how we operate for decades to come.”

The Alaska Airlines incident prompted a series of federal and congressional investigations into Boeing’s safety and manufacturing practices. 

 

Earlier this month, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that Boeing refused to tell investigators the names of people on a 25-member team that worked on a door plug that came off the Alaska Airlines plane.

“Boeing has not provided us with the documents and information that we have requested numerous times over the past few months, specifically with respect to opening, closing, and removal of the door,” Homendy told lawmakers. “Without that information, that raises concerns about quality assurance, quality management, [and] safety management systems.”

Other Boeing planes have experienced high-profile malfunctions this year, with a United Airlines Boeing 737 losing an external panel midflight this month and a Boeing 737-800 in Japan being forced to turn back in January because of a crack in the cockpit window. The incidents come as the Federal Aviation Authority found that a Boeing plant in Renton, Washington, failed 33 of 88 production standards.