Boeing Tells FAA Plan To Fix Safety Issues

Boeing’s top executives delivered a plan to improve quality and safety to the Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday, vowing to address systemic issues that have damaged the company’s reputation and put the aircraft manufacturer at the center of several federal investigations.

Boeing detailed these and other steps during a three-hour meeting with the F.A.A.’s administrator, Mike Whitaker, where the company submitted a “comprehensive action plan” that the regulator ordered in February.

Mr. Whitaker had given Boeing 90 days to develop a plan to make sweeping safety improvements after a midcabin panel known as a door plug blew out of a 737 Max 9 jet flying at about 16,000 feet on Jan. 5. No one was seriously injured during the flight.

The F.A.A. said in a statement on Thursday that “senior” leaders from the agency would “meet with Boeing weekly to review their performance metrics, progress and any challenges they’re facing in implementing the changes.”

Boeing was also required to address findings, from an expert panel convened by the F.A.A. last year, that revealed persistent issues with the company’s safety culture. Mr. Whitaker said Boeing had accepted all of the recommendations the panel made in the report.

“We need to see a strong and unwavering commitment to safety and quality that endures over time,” Mr. Whitaker said during a news conference on Thursday. “This is about systemic change, and there’s a lot of work to be done.”

In a statement, Boeing said the action plan it delivered to the F.A.A. was based on feedback it received from employees and through conversations with the regulator. Boeing provided some additional detail on the actions it was taking to improve quality but did not make the safety plan public.

In an email to employees, Stephanie Pope, the head of Boeing’s commercial plane unit and the company’s chief operating officer, said the company is investing in training, simplifying plans and processes, eliminating defects and improving quality and safety.

The company has made some changes, including expanding training for new hires to 14 weeks from 10 weeks; helping managers spend more time on the factory floor and less time in meetings; increasing inspections at Boeing and at a top supplier, and ordering more tools and equipment.

“Many of these actions are underway and our team is committed to executing on each element of the plan,” David Calhoun, Boeing’s chief executive, said in a statement. “It is through this continuous learning and improvement process that our industry has made commercial aviation the safest mode of transportation. The actions we are taking today will further strengthen that foundation.”

The company has also conducted more than 20 meetings at sites around the world, pausing work to gather employee feedback on improving quality. More than 70,000 Boeing workers have participated, providing tens of thousands of comments, the company has said.

Mr. Whitaker, who met on Thursday with Mr. Calhoun, said he planned to continue to meet weekly with Boeing to make sure the actions were executed correctly and in a timely manner. Mr. Whitaker will meet with Boeing’s chief executive in September. Mr. Calhoun has said he plans to step down at the end of the year.

There is no timeline for Boeing to carry out the changes, Mr. Whitaker said.

He also said Boeing had developed six measures by which it and the agency would be able to track the company’s progress. The F.A.A. will also maintain heightened inspections of both Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, a supplier that makes the bodies of the 737 Max jet. Boeing has said it plans to buy Spirit to gain more control over the quality of the parts it produces for the company.

The action plan is the latest in a series of moves by the F.A.A. to push for safety improvements throughout Boeing. The regulator limited Boeing’s monthly production of 737 Max jets and audited its production lines, and is investigating the company’s compliance with federal safety standards.

Mr. Whitaker said the F.A.A. would continue to put limits on Boeing until the agency was satisfied with the company’s progress. The regulator and Boeing have not yet discussed raising the number of Max jets that Boeing can produce in a month beyond 38, he said. Boeing is making the planes at well below that rate, but has said it hopes to accelerate production in the second half of the year.

“We will not approve production increases beyond the current cap until we’re satisfied,” Mr. Whitaker said during the news conference. “Bottom line, we will continue to make sure every airplane that comes off the line is safe and reliable.”

The Justice Department has also opened a criminal investigation into the Jan. 5 episode. A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board suggested that the Max 9 plane might have left Boeing’s factory in Renton, Wash., without the panel bolted down.

Boeing also faces potential legal repercussions from crashes involving its planes. The Justice Department said this month that Boeing had violated a 2021 settlement reached after two 737 Max plane crashes killed hundreds in 2018 and 2019, and could be prosecuted on a criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the F.A.A.

The Justice Department found that Boeing had failed to “design, implement and enforce” a compliance and ethics program that was a condition of the settlement. The company plans to contest the department’s determination.

That 2021 settlement had been criticized for being too lenient on Boeing and for being struck without consulting the families of the 346 people killed in the Max crashes, which were in Indonesia and Ethiopia and led to the grounding of the 737 Max fleet for 20 months. An investigation determined that both crashes involved the mistaken triggering of a maneuvering system designed to help avert stalls in flight.

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