New York CNN –
Boeing CEO David Calhoun's Wednesday was clearly a mixed bag: The Federal Aviation Administration finally approved a set of inspection criteria for the 171 grounded 737 Max 9 planes that, if followed, could put the planes back in service. But he also learned that his company was facing further investigation into its security problems.
The FAA opened its announcement late Wednesday with a stark warning: “The January 5 Boeing 737-9 Max incident must never be repeated,” referring to an incident earlier this month in which part of an Alaskan Airlines flight exploded in mid-air. And the FAA said it would not grant production expansion of the 737 Max range while Boeing's safety investigation continues.
But the FAA cleared the way for the planes to return. Airlines, particularly Alaska and United, suffered hundreds of cancellations every day due to the flight ban.
“The comprehensive, expanded review our team completed after several weeks of information gathering gives me and the FAA the confidence to move forward with the inspection and maintenance phase,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in a statement.
Each of the 171 grounded planes must be inspected, including the screws, hardware and guide rails for the door plug, the piece of fuselage that flew off an Alaska Airlines plane earlier this month. The process This includes tightening fasteners and performing “detailed inspections of…dozens of related components.” ”
In a statement Wednesday, Boeing said it “will continue to cooperate fully and transparently with the FAA and follow its guidance as we take steps to improve safety and quality at Boeing.” We will also work closely with our airline customers, as they complete the necessary inspection procedures to safely return their 737-9 aircraft to service.”
On Wednesday, Alaska Airlines said inspections are expected to last 12 hours and that the first of its 737 Max 9 planes will return to service on Friday. Inspections would be completed next week, it said.
United Airlines said it received approval from the FAA to add 79 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft back into its fleet this weekend, according to a memo from the airline's operations manager obtained by CNN.
“We will return every Max 9 aircraft to service once this thorough inspection process is complete,” said Toby Enqvist, executive vice president and chief operations officer at United. “We are preparing the aircraft for return to scheduled service from Sunday”
And Whitaker noted that Boeing itself is not out of the woods yet.
“But let me be clear: things will not go back to normal for Boeing,” he said. “We will not approve any request from Boeing to expand production or authorize additional production lines for the 737 Max until we are satisfied that the quality control issues uncovered during this process have been resolved.”
Calhoun's meeting with Washington lawmakers on Wednesday ended with a CEO's nightmare: He was forced to defend the safety of his company's planes to travelers just before he learned that Boeing was facing another investigation.
“We fly safe aircraft,” Calhoun told reporters gathered on Capitol Hill. “We don’t allow any aircraft into the air that we don’t have 100 percent confidence in.”
Calhoun acknowledged passengers' serious concerns about flying and said he came to Washington in the spirit of transparency and openness to give lawmakers a better understanding of the company's efforts to improve safety.
“I'm here today … to answer all of their questions, because they have a lot of them,” Calhoun said.
After speaking to reporters, Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee, announced she would hold a future hearing to examine Boeing's safety record.
“The American flying public and Boeing line workers deserve a leadership culture at Boeing that puts safety over profit,” Cantwell said in a statement. “I will hold hearings to investigate the causes of these safety deficiencies.”
Cantwell said that in her meeting with Calhoun earlier in the day, she emphasized that Boeing must put quality and technology first. After several incidents in recent years, including the Alaska Airlines incident this month, that commitment has become an important question.
The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the incident.
The failure to increase production of the Max is a major blow to Boeing's efforts to return to profitability.
Boeing's production of the 737 Max, its best-selling plane, still hasn't reached the production rate it had before two fatal crashes in 2019 led to a 20-month grounding of the plane. It is not clear when it will be able to continue its efforts to restart production at a more profitable pace.
Industry experts have expressed serious doubts about Boeing's ability to emerge unscathed from the investigation. Last week, a Wells Fargo report titled “FAA Audit Opens a Whole New Can of Worms” found that Boeing's quality control and technical problems have been ongoing for years.
“Given Boeing's recent track record and the FAA's greater incentive to find problems, we think the chances of a clean audit are slim,” the analysts said.
A week earlier, Calhoun acknowledged that the company had made a “mistake” at an employee-wide safety meeting, but did not specify what the error was. NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy has demanded that Boeing provide answers about any mistakes the company made as part of its safety investigation, which is independent of the FAA review.
Boeing has faced recurring quality and safety problems with its planes for five years, leading to long-term grounding of some jets and halting deliveries of other planes.
The 737 Max's design was found to be responsible for two fatal crashes: one in Indonesia in October 2018 and the other in Ethiopia in March 2019. Together, the two crashes killed all 346 people aboard the two flights to a 20-month grounding of one of the company's best-selling jets, costing the company more than $21 billion.
Internal communications released during the 737 Max's grounding showed one employee describing the jet as “designed by clowns who are in turn overseen by monkeys.”
Late last month, Boeing asked airlines to check all of its 737 Max jets for a possible loose screw in the rudder system after an airline discovered a potential problem with a key part on two planes.
Its quality and engineering issues go beyond the 737. Boeing also had to halt deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner twice, for about a year starting in 2021 and again in 2023, due to quality concerns cited by the FAA. And the 777 jet also had to be grounded after engine failure on a United flight spread engine debris onto houses and the ground below.
Two Max variants – the Max 7 and the Max 10 – are still awaiting approval for passenger transport. This latest incident complicates the situation, Wells Fargo analysts noted.