Boeing said the pinnacle of its 737 Max program is leaving because it continues to grapple with fallout over the midair door blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight last month.
Ed Clark, who led Boeing’s troubled department that also oversees the production of its embattled Max 9 model, is leaving immediately, Stan Deal, the chief executive of the industrial airplanes unit, said in a Wednesday memo to employees obtained by The Post.
In keeping with his LinkedIn, Clark’s exit caps off a virtually 15-year stint on the Seattle-based firm.
He was promoted to take over the Max program in 2021, in line with The Latest York Times, when the corporate was accelerating production following two 737 Max 9 crashes — in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in March in 2019 — that killed a combined 346 people.
Those crashes resulted in a brief global grounding of 737 Max jets and sparked a firestorm of questions on Boeing’s safety procedures.
The pinnacle of Boeing’s troubled Max 737 department is leaving the corporate, effective immediately, in line with a companywide memo sent by Stan Deal, the CEO of the industrial planes unit, on Wednesday. REUTERS
Clark’s departure was part of a bigger leadership overhaul: Deal also told staffers on Wednesday that Elizabeth Lund would move from her post as senior vice chairman of airplane programs to “the brand new position of senior vice chairman for BCA Quality, where she’s going to lead our quality control and quality assurance efforts.”
Mike Fleming, a former senior design engineer, stepped into Lund’s previous role, said Deal, who also shared other internal succession plans — all effective immediately.
Deal said that the shakeup was implemented to proceed the corporate’s “enhanced give attention to ensuring that each airplane we deliver meets or exceeds all quality and safety requirements. Our customers demand, and deserve, nothing less.”
In recent weeks, Boeing has also been overhauling its quality-control processes after a now-infamous fuselage blowout on Jan. 5 when an Alaska Airlines-operated Boeing 737 Max 9 climbed to 16,000 feet after taking off from Portland, Ore.
Clark oversaw the production of Boeing 737 Max models at the corporate’s Renton, Wash. factory. He was promoted to the position in 2021. REUTERS
The Virginia-based company had said its increasing inspections as its Renton, Wash.-based factory, where Clark helmed Max production-related operations, per The Times.
The event has turn into a full-blown safety and reputational crisis for Boeing, which has been notified by its supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, of additional manufacturing issues in some 50 undelivered 737 Max 9 planes.
Sprit AeroSystems told Boeing earlier this month that there have been incorrectly drilled holes on quite a lot of fuselages, which can require additional work expected to cause near-term delays of the aircraft.
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Still, all Boeing 737 Max 9s have already returned to the skies after reportedly undergoing a lengthy inspection process by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy, said on “CNN This Morning” early this month said on the time that she “would haven’t any problem tomorrow taking a flight on a Max 9.”
Meanwhile, she also warned “after all, something like this may occur again,” when speaking on the terrifying incident, which was blamed on 4 missing bolts intended to carry the door plug in place.
On Jan. 5, an Alaska Airlines-operated flight on a Boeing 737 Max 9 climbed to 16,000 feet before a midair door blowout occurred that passengers described as “terrifying.” AP
“There isn’t any way that this plane must have been delivered with 4 safety critical bolts missing,” Homendy added, noting “an issue in the method.”
Alaska Airlines and United Airlines are the one two US carriers that operate the Max 9 Boeing model.
She also said that that NTSB has to do a greater job at “digging into what’s occurring at Boeing,” noting that she agrees with FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker’s testimony before Congress on Tuesday, when he said that the agency has been depending an excessive amount of on aircraft makers like Boeing to control themselves, per CNN.
“The present system will not be working ‘cause it’s not delivering secure aircraft,” Whitaker added. “So now we have to make some changes to that.”
“I absolutely agree that it needs to alter,” Homendy told CNN, adding that the problem is more of “a top quality control problem,” and goes beyond Alaska Airlines’ fuselage blowout last month.