Trump Administration Requests Update on Boeing's Safety and Quality Improvements
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Thursday announced that he had asked the chief executive of Boeing, the nation's largest plane maker, to come to Washington and update him on the company's commitment to addressing its quality and safety issues.
Mr. Duffy wrote on the social media platform X that following that meeting with Kelly Ortberg, the aerospace company's chief executive, he planned to visit Boeing 'to evaluate firsthand the measures being implemented to ensure its planes meet the highest safety standards.'
When asked about Mr. Duffy's post, Boeing deferred comment to the Transportation Department.
During his confirmation hearing last month, Mr. Duffy said he would continue his department's oversight of Boeing. The company came under an intense international spotlight during President Trump's previous administration after a pair of Boeing Max planes crashes — a Lion Air flight in 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight in 2019 — killed a total of 346 people.
The company was further thrust into crisis after a panel in the body of a 737 Max plane was blown out during an Alaska Airlines flight in January 2024. No one died in the incident, but the Federal Aviation Administration increased scrutiny of the company's manufacturing processes.
The panel blowout put the aircraft manufacturer at the center of several federal investigations and prompted the Justice Department to re-examine a 2021 settlement it had reached with Boeing in relation to the Max crashes.
Last year, Boeing gave the F.A.A. a plan to address systemic issues that had damaged the company's reputation.
Boeing also underwent a management shake-up and cut back on plane production to make quality improvements. It is in the process of buying a major supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, to gain more control over its production process.
Much of Boeing's plane production came to a virtual halt this past fall during a nearly two-month strike of tens of thousands of factory workers. That strike ended in November and the company has since made progress in restoring production, Mr. Ortberg said in a message to employees late last month.
'We are seeing encouraging signs of progress as we work together to turnaround our company,' he said in the message, which was sent the same day that the company announced its financial results for the last quarter of 2024. Mr. Ortberg took over as Boeing's chief executive last summer.
Boeing recently said it had delivered 45 planes in January, more than in any month last year.
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