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- By Theo Leggett
- Business correspondent, BBC News
Dave Calhoun, CEO of Boeing
Boeing boss Dave Calhoun will leave the company later this year amid a deepening crisis over the company’s safety record.
Boeing also said the head of its commercial airlines division will retire immediately and its president will not run for re-election.
The company is under pressure after an unused door on a Boeing 737 Max exploded shortly after takeoff in January.
No one was hurt, but the company’s safety and quality control standards came under new scrutiny.
Many analysts said a change in Boeing leadership was necessary.
“A shakeup is needed at the top,” said Stewart Glickman, an equity analyst at CFRA Research, adding that he believed the current crisis stemmed from problems in the company’s corporate culture that only a new vision could fix.
“I don’t think you can change the culture with internal voices because I think this has been the modus operandi of this company for too long.”
Calhoun took over as CEO in early 2020 after the previous boss, Dennis Muilenburg, was ousted following one of the biggest scandals in Boeing’s history.
Within five months, two new 737 Max planes were lost in nearly identical crashes that claimed the lives of 346 passengers and crew.
A board member at the time, after being named boss, Calhoun promised to strengthen Boeing’s “safety culture” and “rebuild trust.”
However, in January of this year a disused emergency exit door blew up a new Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max shortly after takeoff from Portland International Airport.
An initial report by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board concluded that four bolts intended to securely attach the door to the plane had not been installed.
Boeing faces a criminal investigation into the incident itself, as well as legal action from passengers aboard the plane.
In a letter to staff on Monday, Calhoun described the Alaska Airlines incident as a “defining moment” for Boeing and said it had to respond with “humility and complete transparency.”
“The eyes of the world are on us and I know we will come out of this moment a better company,” he said.
Aviation safety activist Ed Pierson, a former senior manager at Boeing’s 737 factory in Renton, Washington, said Calhoun had had years to try to improve safety at the company.
“It’s been one failure after another,” said Pierson, who is now executive director of the Aviation Safety Foundation.
“The company deserves much better leadership and the people who get on these planes deserve much better leadership.”
The explosion had tested Boeing’s relationships with its airline customers and regulators in Washington, reviving concerns that the company’s corporate culture had focused on speed over safety.
The Federal Aviation Administration said earlier this month that a six-week audit of the 737 Max production process at Boeing and its supplier Spirit Aerosystems had found “multiple instances in which the companies failed to meet quality control requirements.” of manufacturing”.
See: ‘Journey from hell’: on board the flight during a mid-air explosion
The findings came shortly after another report on Boeing’s safety culture by a panel of experts found a “disconnect” between top management and regular staff, as well as signs that staff were hesitant to report problems for fear of reprisals.
After two plane crashes in October 2018 and 2019, faulty flight control software was found to have caused the incidents, details of which Boeing was accused of deliberately hiding from regulators.
The company agreed to pay $2.5bn (£1.8bn) to settle fraud charges and admitted deception, although in subsequent court hearings it formally pleaded not guilty.
He later faced widespread accusations that he had put profits before the lives of passengers.
Mark Pegram, whose son Sam, 25, died when the Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crashed in 2019, said it seemed Calhoun had been hired to say what investors wanted to hear and “not fix the cause of the problems that were causing Planes to fall from the sky.”
He said he was pleased with the change, but disappointed that it took so long.
“It’s something we’ve been asking for for quite some time,” he said.
The Boeing crisis has caused broader disruption in the travel industry as the company, one of the world’s top two plane makers, slows its manufacturing lines to try to control the problems.
Airlines, including Ryanair, have warned of higher ticket prices and more limited flight schedules due to delays in plane deliveries.
For Boeing, the slowdown is already generating multibillion-dollar charges, while rival Airbus gains the upper hand. The company also faces criticism for failing to innovate.
Speculation has already begun about who could replace Calhoun, but the pool of people qualified for that position is small.
Air transport consultant John Strickland of JLS Consulting warned that the company still has some hard work ahead.
“It’s all very well getting rid of people, but what are you going to do to continue running the business?” Strickland said. “It’s much easier said than done.”
The company’s shares rose more than 1% after the changes were announced.
In addition to Calhoun, Stan Deal will immediately step down as head of Boeing’s commercial airlines division. He will be replaced by Stephanie Pope, who spent the last three months working as Boeing’s chief operating officer.
Larry Kellner, the company’s chairman, will also leave and will be replaced by Steve Mollenkopf, a former Qualcomm chief who has been a member of Boeing’s board since 2020. He will lead the search for a new chief executive.
