{"id":356575,"date":"2024-05-30T14:41:21","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T18:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/?post_type=news&p=356575"},"modified":"2024-05-30T15:22:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T19:22:08","slug":"boeing-tells-federal-regulators-how-it-plans-to-fix-aircraft-safety-and-quality-problems","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/news\/boeing-tells-federal-regulators-how-it-plans-to-fix-aircraft-safety-and-quality-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeing tells federal regulators how it plans to fix aircraft safety and quality problems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker speaks at a news conference at FAA headquarters in Washington, Thursday, May 30, 2024. Boeing has told federal regulators how it plans to fix the safety and quality problems that have plagued its aircraft-manufacturing work in recent years. Jose Luis Magana\/AP Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Boeing\u00a0officials explained their plan to improve manufacturing quality and safety during a three-hour meeting Thursday with federal officials, who will continue restrictions they placed on the company after one of its jetliners\u00a0suffered a blowout<\/a>\u00a0of a fuselage panel in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal Aviation Administration chief Mike Whitaker said the plan is comprehensive and includes encouraging Boeing employees to speak up about safety concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a guide for a new way for Boeing to do business.\u201d Whitaker told reporters after the meeting. \u201dBoeing has laid out their road map, and now they need to execute.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Boeing delegation was led by outgoing CEO David Calhoun. The company did not immediately comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody was hurt during the Jan. 5 blowout of a door plug on a relatively new Alaska Airlines\u00a0Boeing 737 Max 9\u00a0as it flew above Oregon. Accident investigators determined that bolts used to help secure the panel were missing after a repair job in a Boeing factory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mishap further battered Boeing\u2019s reputation, led to multiple civil and\u00a0criminal investigations<\/a>, and prompted Whitaker to order the report that Boeing delivered Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitaker said he wanted Boeing to develop a comprehensive, detailed plan that improves manufacturing process, quality and safety management, and encourages employees to raise concerns about safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose are all elements of the plan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Whitaker said, the FAA will continue to cap production of the 737 Max, Boeing’s best-selling plane, and to insist on approving each plane that comes off the assembly line. He said the FAA also will maintain a \u201csignificant increase\u201d in safety inspectors at plants run by Boeing and its key supplier, Spirit AeroSystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boeing\u2019s recent problems could expose it to criminal prosecution related to the deadly crashes of two Max jetliners in 2018 and 2019. The Justice Department said two weeks ago that Boeing violated terms of a\u00a02021 settlement<\/a>\u00a0that allowed it to avoid prosecution for fraud. The charge was based on the company allegedly deceiving regulators about a flight-control system that was implicated in the crashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whistleblowers have accused the company of taking shortcuts that endanger passengers, a claim that\u00a0Boeing disputes. A panel convened by the FAA prior to the blowout found shortcomings in the aircraft maker\u2019s\u00a0safety culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the recent problems have been related to the Max, however Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems have also struggled with manufacturing flaws on a larger plane, the 787 Dreamliner. Boeing has suffered setbacks on other programs including its\u00a0Starliner space capsule, a military refueling tanker, and new\u00a0Air Force One\u00a0presidential jets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boeing officials have vowed to\u00a0regain the trust\u00a0of regulators and the flying public. Boeing has\u00a0fallen behind\u00a0rival\u00a0Airbus, and production setbacks have\u00a0hurt the company’s\u00a0ability to generate cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company says it is reducing \u201ctraveled work\u201d \u2014 assembly tasks that are done out of their proper chronological order \u2014 and keeping closer tabs on Spirit AeroSystems including preventing the supplier from shipping defective fuselages to Boeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plane that suffered the door-plug blowout was being repaired because it had damaged rivets when it arrived at a Boeing factory from Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was originally published by the Associated Press on May 30, 2024. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Federal Aviation Administration required Boeing to produce a turnaround plan after one of its jetliners\u00a0suffered a blowout\u00a0of a fuselage panel in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":356586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[99054],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-356575","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commercial","entry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/356575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}