Boeing chief admits mid-air blowout was firm’s ‘mistake’

BOEING’S chief executive has admitted the mid-air Alaska Airlines panel blowout was the aircraft maker’s “mistake” and said it made him think of his children amid fears for passengers safety.

Dave Calhoun told the company’s staff he had been “shaken to the bone” by last week’s near-catastrophic incident, in which a so-called door plug section snapped off the fuselage of a nearly-full 737 Max 9 plane, leaving a gaping hole next to a miraculously-empty seat.

“We’re going to approach this, number one, [by] acknowledging our mistake,” he said in a town hall on Tuesday at Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington, where 737s are assembled.

“We’re going to approach it with 100 per cent and complete transparency every step of the way.”

He added that an image of the blownout jet widely published in the wake of the incident had made him think of his family. “When I got that picture, all I could think about… [was] I’ve got kids, I’ve got grandkids – and so do you. This stuff matters. Every detail matters,” Mr Calhoun added.

His remarks were Boeing’s first public acknowledgement of errors since Friday’s incident.

The plane had been bound for the city of Ontario, in California, but was forced to make an emergency landing in Oregon 35 minutes after taking off. It had reached an altitude of about 16,000ft (4,876 metres) when it began its descent after the cabin depressurised.

All 171 passengers and six crew members on board survived, with no serious injuries. More than 170 Max 9 jets have since been grounded. Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, the two US carriers that use the planes, have found loose parts on similar aircraft.

Boeing revealed on Tuesday it delivered 528 planes to buyers last year, up from 480 in 2022.

Last week’s incident has rekindled concern about Boeing almost five years after a full-blown 737 Max safety crisis was caused by deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, which killed a total of 346 people.