Boeing President Davia Calhoun resigns

A series of scandals, inspections and technical problems that followed the incident with the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 aircraft resulted in the expected personnel changes at Boeing. The aviation concern announced the departure of the company’s President and CEO David Calhoun at the end of the year. At the same time, it became known about the immediate resignation of the head of the commercial aviation business and the change of the chairman of the board of directors at the end of his term of office.

David Calhoun became president and CEO of Boeing in January 2020. He was appointed to lead the American concern out of a protracted crisis caused by two crashes of 737 MAX aircraft. An airline plane crashed in October 2018 Lion Air in Indonesia, and in March 2019 – airlines Ethiopian Airlines in Ethiopia. A total of 346 people died. After the second crash, regulators in various countries suspended the operation of the 737 MAX. These aircraft were allowed into operation only at the beginning of 2021, and Boeing itself, due to its shaky reputation, lost competition in the market to its eternal competitor, the European Airbus.

In January 2024, David Calhoun had his own massive crisis.

January 6 airline 737 MAX 9 Alaska Airlines was forced to urgently return to Portland Airport after a hatch plug in the middle of the cabin fell off at an altitude of about 5 km, which led to depressurization of the airliner. There were no casualties. But the 737 MAX series aircraft have once again found themselves grounded by US and European regulators. Large-scale inspections of Boeing have begun again.

During these inspections, it turned out, for example, that on many Boeing 737 hatch covers were installed inappropriately. Problems were also found with the fuselage of these airliners. In addition, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) discovered dozens of violations in the 737 MAX production processes.

All attempts by Boeing to assure authorities and partners of the reliability of its aircraft were unsuccessful.

This situation has led to a reduction in production and supplies Boeing aircraft, and recently the company warnedthat its financial losses for the quarter from this incident could amount to $4.5 billion.

The first organizational conclusions regarding the incident with the Alaska Airlines plane were made back in February. Then the company fired the vice president and head of the 737 MAX program. Ed Clark. He worked at Boeing for 18 years, starting as a chief mechanic and model engineer for the Boeing 737. In recent years, he supervised the Renton, Wash., manufacturing complex where the plane involved in the January crash was built.

The damage to the company’s reputation was so great that the cosmetic measure of firing only the person responsible for the production of aircraft was not enough.

And the fact that Mr. Clark’s departure was perceived this way is evidenced, among other things, by the demand of the largest Boeing workers’ union to give him a seat on the corporation’s board of directors. This is reported by Financial Times. For what? “To save the company from itself,” said a representative of the union, which unites about 32 thousand workers.

And today Boeing announcedthat David Calhoun will step down as CEO and president of the company at the end of this year. But that’s not all. The head of the commercial aircraft division, Stanley Deal, has already lost his post. The same one who announced to Boeing employees the dismissal of Ed Clark. His place was taken by Stephanie Pope, who was previously Boeing’s chief operating officer.

Finally, the company’s current chairman, Larry Kellner, announced that he will not stand for re-election for another term. He has held his post since 2019; his successor is also already known – this is Steve Mollenkopf, the former CEO of Qualcomm and a member of the Boeing board of directors since 2020. It is he who will lead the search for the person who will be trusted to once again pull Boeing out of the protracted crisis.

Kirill Sarkhanyants