Boeing’s chief executive is taking several steps to encourage employees to strengthen their commitment to aviation safety following the in-flight failure of a cabin door plug on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9.
In an 7 January message to all company workers, chief executive David Calhoun invited Boeing’s entire staff to join a safety-focused webcast on 9 January.
In the wake of the 5 January incident, which did not seriously injure any passengers or crew, Calhoun has also cancelled a leadership summit that had been scheduled for 8 and 9 January.
“As we work diligently with our regulators and support our customers following the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in-flight accident, I will hold a company-wide webcast focused on safety on Tuesday,” Calhoun says in the 7 January message.
The Alaska Airlines incident has put Boeing back in the spotlight.
Shortly after taking off from Portland the evening of 5 January, the Alaska 737 Max 9 suffered rapid depressurisation after a plug covering an unused cabin emergency exit blew out. The event left a large hole in the side of the cabin. The pilots returned safety back to Portland.
Boeing had delivered the jet new to Alaska only two months prior, leaving analysts and safety experts suspecting that the failure resulted from a manufacturing quality problem or from inadequate inspections by Boeing or its suppliers.
The National Transportation Safety Board has only just started its investigation, and the event prompted swift action from the Federal Aviation Administration, which on 6 January grounded 737 Max 9s with the plugs, pending inspections.
“When it comes to the safety of our products and services, every decision and every action matters,” Calhoun’s memo to employees says. “And when serious accidents like this occur, it is critical for us to work transparently with our customers and regulators to understand and address the causes of the event, and to ensure they don’t happen again.”
Calhoun will broadcast the 9 January webcast from Boeing’s 737 assembly facility in Renton, Washington.
“We will spend time together Tuesday talking about our company’s response to this accident, and reinforcing our focus on and our commitment to safety, quality, integrity and transparency,” the memo says. “While we’ve made progress in strengthening our safety management and quality control systems and processes in the last few years, situations like this are a reminder that we must remain focused on continuing to improve every day.”
The cancelled leadership summit had been for all Boeing vice-presidents.
“In light of the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in-flight event, we are cancelling the summit to focus on our support to Alaska Airlines and the ongoing National Transportation Safety Board investigation, and any of our airline customers experiencing impact to their fleets,” Calhoun says in a separate message to vice-presidents.
Carriers including Alaska, United Airlines, Aeromexico, Copa and Turkish Airlines grounded some or all of their Max 9s due to the incident.
