Boeing has ousted the head of its 737 Max program, which comes roughly six weeks after a door plug blew out mid-flight on a 737 Max aircraft and a safety review found that the plane had taken off with missing bolts.
Ed Clark, who headed the 737 Max program, is departing the company with immediate effect, according to a Feb. 21 email to staff from Stan Deal, the CEO of Boeing’s commercial airplanes division, which was provided to The Epoch Times by a company spokesperson.
Mr. Deal said in the memo that the changes are part of an “enhanced focus on ensuring that every airplane we deliver meets or exceeds all quality and safety requirements. Our customers demand, and deserve, nothing less.”
Boeing’s increased focus on safety comes after the company admitted in mid-January that its 737 Max production quality wasn’t up to snuff following greater scrutiny sparked by the mid-air door plug blowout.
A panel covering an unused emergency door blew out not long after takeoff on an Alaska Airlines-operated Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft on Jan. 5, prompting a rapid decompression and forcing an emergency landing.
The incident led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ground all 737 Max 9s, order “enhanced inspections” on the planes, and launch an investigation into Boeing to see if the company failed to ensure proper production safety standards.
Boeing said it was cooperating fully with the probe, with Mr. Deal saying in mid-January that the Alaska Airlines incident showed that “we are not where we need to be” in terms of quality and so the company would undertake “immediate actions to bolster quality assurance and controls across our factories.”
While carrying out the resulting FAA-mandated inspections, some of Boeing’s customers found additional issues, including loose door plug bolts.
Besides the issues with bolts, an employee also reportedly discovered improperly drilled holes on some of the 737 Max fuselages.
The Incident
Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was en route to Ontario, California, from Portland, Oregon, when the exit door plug tore off, leading to the rapid decompression and emergency landing.The incident took place about six minutes into the flight when the aircraft reached an altitude of about 16,000 feet.
Fortunately, no one was seriously injured. Experts say if the incident had taken place at a higher elevation, such as a cruising altitude of around 40,000 feet, the door plug failure could have been deadly.
The pilot declared an emergency, notifying air traffic control of a depressurization issue.
Social media footage showed a window and a portion of a side wall panel missing on the airplane and oxygen masks deployed.
The plane door was later found in the backyard of a Portland home.
NTSB investigators would later find that all four bolts were missing before the plane took off from Portland.
Without the bolts in place, there was nothing to prevent the door plug from sliding upwards and detaching from the fuselage.
The NTSB preliminary report found that the door plug, which was installed by supplier Spirit AeroSystems, arrived at Boeing’s factory with some damaged rivets. In order to repair the damaged rivets, technicians had to remove the four bolts.
The investigation did not declare a probable cause for the accident. That is expected to come at the conclusion of the investigation, which could last over a year.
Further Leadership Shakeup
In his memo to staff, Mr. Deal announced several other leadership changes in addition to Mr. Clark’s departure.Katie Ringgold will replace Mr. Clark as vice president and general manager of the 737 program and the Renton site.
Ms. Ringgold’s replacement as vice president of 737 Delivery Operations will be named in relatively short order, Mr. Deal said.
Elizabeth Lund has been named to the new position of senior vice president for BCA Quality, “where she will lead our quality control and quality assurance efforts, as well as the quality initiatives we recently announced, within BCA and the supply chain,” he added.
Ms. Lund will continue to serve on the company’s executive council, as chair of the Boeing Quality Operations Council.
Mike Fleming will take over from Ms. Lund as senior vice president and general manager of Boeing’s Airplane Programs.
In his message, Mr. Deal thanked the departing Mr. Clark, expressing “deepest gratitude for his many significant contributions over nearly 18 years of dedicated service to Boeing.”
All the leadership changes were effective immediately.