Boeing submits improvement plans, but FAA isn't done with oversight
Boeing submitted an action plan Thursday to address “systemic quality-control issues” in the wake of January’s Alaska Airlines door plug failure, the Federal Aviation Administration announced.
The agency required Boeing to provide details on the actions the company will take, including strengthening its safety management and bolstering employee safety reporting, simplifying processes and procedures, enhancing supplier oversight, enhancing employee training and communication, and increasing internal audits of the production system.
Even so, the FAA said there’s more work to be done.
“On the FAA’s part, we will make sure they do and that their fixes are effective. This does not mark the end of our increased oversight of Boeing and its suppliers, but it sets a new standard of how Boeing does business," FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in a statement.
Boeing said it is doubling down on its commitment to safety.
The company said this month it has added new training material for manufacturing and quality roles averaging about 20 to 50 more training hours per employee, while more than 7,000 new tools and equipment have been provided for commercial airplane work.
"After the Jan. 5 accident involving a 737 airplane, we took immediate containment and mitigation actions to ensure airplane safety. We also made the decision to slow production as we took a hard look across every facet of our operations," outgoing Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said in a statement. "We listened to our employees, engaged transparently with our regulator, welcomed the findings and recommendations from the FAA’s ACSAA (Aircraft Certification, Safety and Accountability Act) panel review, and invited scrutiny from customers and independent experts."
Senior FAA leaders will meet with Boeing weekly to review their performance metrics and conduct monthly reviews to gauge progress, the agency said.
Cruising Altitude: I've covered Boeing's 737 MAX for years. A quick rundown of the issues.
How did we get here?
The planemaker has been under the regulatory microscope for years in response to a series of high-profile incidents. A pair of 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 left 346 people dead and resulted in the plane type being grounded worldwide for nearly two years.
Boeing never quite escaped the shadow of those incidents, and scrutiny arose again this year after an Alaska Airlines 737 Max lost a piece of the fuselage shortly after takeoff. No one was injured and there were no fatalities that resulted, but regulators and lawmakers renewed their scrutiny of Boeing as a result and once again some 737 Max jets were grounded.
Prior to the release of the action plan Thursday, Boeing had already voluntarily taken some steps to improve its safety culture, including increasing training for new factory employees and pausing production for a day in some facilities to allow employees to speak openly about concerns they may have.
Regulators have also required Boeing to scale back its production plans for the 737 Max and the FAA continues to investigate the manufacturer and its subcontractors over safety concerns.
The Department of Justice is considering criminal prosecution of Boeing over the 737 Max safety issues.