Boeing should accept the fault and make amends in the wake of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9’s mid-air door panel blowout that triggered concerns about the quality standards maintained by the plane maker, its chief executive has said.
Mr Calhoun made the comments during a company-wide meeting called to reinforce safety as the top priority for Boeing after a door plug blew out on a Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft last week.
There were 177 people on board the Alaska Airlines plane, which had to make an emergency landing shortly after departing from Portland International Airport in Oregon.
The flight crew reported decompression issues after the blowout forced the plane to make an emergency landing 20 minutes later. None of those on-board were injured.
“We’re going to approach this, No 1, acknowledging our mistake,” Dave Calhoun told company employees on Tuesday.
“We’re going to approach it with 100 per cent and complete transparency every step of the way.”
Several other senior Boeing executives also addressed company staff from its Renton, Washington, factory where the 737 is assembled, with their remarks broadcast to workers at other locations, according to Bloomberg.
The US Federal Aviation Administration ordered the immediate grounding of 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft, whose customers include flydubai, Southwest, United, American Airlines, Ryanair, Air Canada, Turkish Airlines and some Chinese airlines.
Regulators around the world say they are “closely monitoring” the situation.
The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority said that none of the airlines in the Emirates operating the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft were affected.
Boeing’s meeting on Tuesday was regarding the plane maker’s “response to this accident and reinforcing our focus on and our commitment to safety, quality, integrity and transparency”, Mr Calhoun said.
“We are going to work with the NTSB [National Transportation Safety Board] itself who is investigating this incident to see what caused it,” he said.
United Arab Emirates Dirham Exchange Rate
