737 MAX documents show ‘disturbing’ staff concerns
WASHINGTON: Fresh doubts have arisen about Boeing Co.’s grounded 737 MAX aircraft following a new batch of messages between Boeing Co. employees that have been brought before a US House Committee, according to Bloomberg.
Worldwide deliveries of the jet to customers including India’s Spicejet Ltd, one of their largest buyers, have already been delayed, and it was not immediately clear whether the development would further delay schedules. A Spicejet spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
The Gurugram-based airline has orders for 155 Boeing aircraft with purchase rights for 50 additional 737 MAX 8 and wide-body planes. The airline has taken delivery of 13 Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes so far, which are at present grounded.
The fuel-efficient aircraft is important to the airline’s strategy to expand its operations and stay profitable in a hyper-competitive market like India, where margins are often wafer thin. However, the delay in the certification of this aircraft has hurt the airline by driving up costs as the company has been forced to lease older and less fuel-efficient Boeing 737 planes to make up for the capacity. Uncertainty about the future of 737 Maplanes will further hurt the finances of the airline, which reported a ₹461 crore loss during the September quarter. The US Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is still reviewing the messages and hasn’t given specific details about what they contain, but a committee aide said in a statement that “similar to other records previously disclosed by Boeing, the records appear to point to a very disturbing picture”.
It added that the Boeing employees’ concerns were about the company’s commitment to safety and that the company’s production plans were not diverted by regulators or others. “The committee will continue to review these and other records provided by Boeing as part of the committee’s ongoing investigation,” the aide said.
According to Bloomberg, these documents were turned over to the US aviation regulator Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Monday, a day after Boeing’s chief executive officer and director of the company’s board Dennis A Muilenburg resigned from his position. Some of these messages were written by the same Boeing pilot whose 2016 messages were released in October and were the subject of sharp questioning by US lawmakers, Bloomberg said citing unidentified people. The communications haven’t been made public.
“Boeing proactively brought these communications to the FAA and Congress as part of our commitment to transparency with our regulators and the oversight committees,” Boeing said in a statement on Wednesday.