Boeing chief: End in sight for ban on beleaguered Max
Boeing Co. is in the “endgame” of preparing its 737 Max to return to the commercial market after two deadly crashes prompted a global grounding more than six months ago, CEO Dennis Muilenburg said.
The company is fine-tuning a software upgrade for the Max’s flight control computers in its simulation lab and girding for the evaluation of a final version by pilots. The company is discussing the timing of the certification flight with U.S. officials, although no date has been set. That’s the final hurdle before the Federal Aviation Administration determines whether the flying ban can be lifted, Muilenburg said Monday.
The CEO is also shaking up Boeing’s organizational structure to sharpen its focus on safety after the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air tragedies, although the moves stop short of a leadership purge sought by some victim advocates.
“I’m very confident in the team we have,” Muilenburg said, pointing to a series of personnel changes the company has quietly made since March. The new appointments range from the head of the 737 program to a vice president of engineering for the commercial airplane business and its supply chain chief. “We’re always putting our best people in the toughest assignments, and that’s the case here.”
Boeing shares fell less than 1 percent to $380.47 at the market’s close in New York. The shares have tumbled 10 percent since a March 10 accident in Ethiopia triggered the global flying ban.
Acting on a recommendation from the board, Muilenburg is creating a new product and services safety organization to centralize responsibilities across the company’s business and operating units. The new group will be run by Beth Pasztor, a 34-year Boeing veteran who will report to the company’s chief engineer as well as a new board committee. Such an arrangement should alert directors of emerging safety and certification matters.
Pasztor will have sweeping responsibility for all aspects of product safety, including investigating concerns raised anonymously by employees, Boeing said in a statement Monday. The company’s accident investigation team, safety review boards, and engineering and technical experts who represent the FAA in aircraft certification will report to Pasztor, who previously oversaw product safety at Boeing’s jetliner division.
“Beth is a proven leader, she’s a collaborator,” Muilenburg said. He also considered external candidates before deciding that Pasztor’s deep knowledge of Boeing would give her a running start.
Muilenburg is under pressure to show airlines, travelers and global regulators that safety is woven into the century-old manufacturer’s designs and culture. Both have been called into question, given the lapses that have prompted regulators to ground two brand-new Boeing jetliners this decade.
The company had already rung up $8.3 billion in Max-related expenses through July, and the costs of maintaining production and compensating customers are certain to grow the longer the grounding lasts.
The final steps to lifting the ban are defined, and timing will be determined by the FAA, Muilenburg said. Once a final version of the flight control computer update is ready, Boeing will invite airline pilots to test-fly it in the company’s engineering simulators, known as e-cabs. A separate team of pilots will review the company’s updated training material. After that, FAA pilots will test the changes in a Max bristling with sensors and other flight-testing equipment.
“That’s the certification endgame,” Muilenburg said. “We’re still marching to a timeline of return to service early in the fourth quarter, but I want to reiterate the timing will be determined by regulators.”
The Max hasn’t flown commercially since just after the March crash of the Ethiopian Airlines jet. The Lion Air plane went down off the coast of Indonesia in October. In both disasters, a flight control system went haywire, nudging the planes’ noses down until the pilots were overwhelmed.
In 2013, Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner was banned for three months after fires on two planes from lithium-ion batteries.