After averting the disaster on board an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9, whose fuselage was partially torn off, the American aircraft manufacturer's CEO David Calhoun made amends to the assembled Boeing executives on Friday, January 5, Tuesday, January 9 January, urged: “We will address this first by admitting our mistake,” he said, adding that airlines were “deeply shocked” but would maintain their “confidence in.” [eux] all “.
Also Read: Inspections on Boeing 737 MAX Planes Show Loose Equipment on Alaska Airlines and United Planes
Really ? After inspections of other equipment revealed that the screws in the part blocking the space reserved for a possible additional emergency door were not properly tightened? After the disaster of two 737 MAXs in 2018 (Lion Air, Indonesia, 189 deaths) and 2019 (Ethiopian Airlines, 157 deaths), which revealed design flaws and a desire to conceal themselves from American regulators?
We can argue, as some financial analysts do, that this is a quality control issue that can be quickly overcome. In reality, trust in Boeing is broken. “They went back five years. Calhoun has to do something drastic to get out of this. “This is a company that values profits over safety,” charged Paul Argenti, a professor of corporate communications at Dartmouth University (New Hampshire), on CNBC on January 9.
Austerity policy
In fact, Mr. Calhoun and the Boeing teams' software is in question. The boss is a student of Jack Welch (1935-2020), who as director of General Electric from 1981 to 2001 made the company the most powerful company in the world while placing profitability at the forefront. The conglomerate collapsed and was eventually dismantled, while Jack Welch was accused of killing American industrial capitalism. His heirs, including Mr. Calhoun, are accused today of killing Boeing, a giant of civil and military aviation. Too big to fall, it might have failed had it not been strategic and saved by the advantageous refinancing of the “Covid years”.
It all goes back to the change in corporate culture at the turn of the century, with the rise of Airbus, which the company had never taken seriously, and the race for money. As journalist Peter Robison explains in his book Flying Blind, Anchor Books, 2021, the company's slogan of “collaborating” has become “more for less.” Boeing has evolved from a culture of engineers to a culture of financiers and salespeople. Despite its setbacks, it is worth more than Airbus on the stock market.
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