2024 has been another miserable year for Boeing. Not only has it struggled to cope with a safety and quality control crisis, but it has also lost billions of dollars following a strike by workers that paralysed production at two of its biggest factories.
Even its space programme has been in trouble. Two astronauts were left stranded on the International Space Station in June after their Boeing Starliner capsule developed a potential fault, which would have made returning to Earth in it too dangerous.
Moreover, the company faces a crisis of confidence from within its own ranks, says Bjorn Fehrm, an aeronautical and economic analyst at industry consultants Lee ham Company.
“People in Boeing don’t believe in words from top management anymore,” he says.
Sam Mohawk is a 51-year-old quality assurance investigator at Boeing’s factory in Renton near Seattle, a huge plant where the 737 Max is built. It is the company’s best-selling aircraft, but one with a chequered safety record.
Earlier this year Mr. Mohawk came forward as a whistleblower, claiming that chaos on the factory floor in the years since the Covid-19 pandemic had led to thousands of faulty or “non-conforming” parts going missing, and potentially being fitted aboard aircraft that have since been sent to customers.
“The whole system was just in shambles,” he says of that period. “It [had] kind of just broken down.”
His allegations came to light in June when they were referred to during a congressional hearing in Washington DC into safety failures at the aerospace giant.
During the session, Boeing’s top bosses were accused by Republican Senator Josh Hawley of “strip-mining” the company for profit and cutting corners on safety in order to boost earnings.
David Calhoun, who was Boeing’s chief executive at the time, said he “didn’t recognise” Mr. Hawley’s depiction of the company. “That is not the way we operate,” Mr. Calhoun said back then. “I am proud of every action we have taken.”
A year after a panel blew out of a Boeing 737 Max during flight, the nation’s top aviation regulator says the company needs “a fundamental cultural shift” to put safety and quality above profits. Mike Whitaker, chief of the Federal Aviation Administration, said in an online post Friday that his agency also has more work to do in its oversight of Boeing.
Whitaker, who plans to step down in two weeks to let President-elect Donald Trump pick his own FAA administrator, looked back on his decision last January to ground all 737 Max jets with similar panels called door plugs. Later, the FAA put more inspectors in Boeing factories, limited production of new 737s, and required Boeing to come up with a plan to fix manufacturing problems.
“Boeing is working to make progress executing its comprehensive plan in the areas of safety, quality improvement and effective employee engagement and training,” Whitaker said. “But this is not a one-year project. What’s needed is a fundamental cultural shift at Boeing that’s oriented around safety and quality above profits. That will require sustained effort and commitment from Boeing, and unwavering scrutiny on our part.”
Boeing on Friday issued an update on steps it has taken to improve safety and quality, including addressing concerns raised by employees and reinforcing their confidentiality protection Boeing, which couldn’t build new 737s during a seven-week strike by machinists last fall, said it has strengthened training for mechanics and quality inspectors. The company said it updated a system to display the names of employees who perform metal-stamping work.
The company also said it has “significantly reduced defects” in 737 fuselages built by Spirit AeroSystems, but it declined to provide numbers. Spirit is a key supplier that Boeing is in the process of buying for $4.7 billion.
The National Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate the door-plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines Max jet. Despite a gaping hole in the side, pilots landed the plane safely in Portland, Oregon, and no serious injuries were reported.
A month after the accident, investigators said in a preliminary report that bolts used to help secure the panel were not replaced after work in a Boeing factory.
Whitaker said the FAA will review any recommendations that the safety board makes to improve FAA’s oversight work. Last summer, he admitted that FAA’s scrutiny of Boeing wasn’t good enough.
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Dr. Bill Pomfret of Safety Projects International Inc who has a training platform, said, “It’s important to clarify that deskless workers aren’t after any old training. Summoning teams to a white-walled room to digest endless slides no longer cuts it. Mobile learning is quickly becoming the most accessible way to get training out to those in the field or working remotely. For training to be a successful retention and recruitment tool, it needs to be an experience learner will enjoy and be in sync with today’s digital habits.