Pete Buttigieg, the outgoing U.S. transportation secretary, believes that Boeing needs to do more to improve the stigma around its safety culture.
Boeing has been under immense scrutiny ever since the world was left in shock after a door plug blew out on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft upon taking off from Portland, Oregon , early last year. "There is much more to do" Tough oversight at Boeing will continue indefinitely following the door plug saga, which identified that four key bolts were loose and led to the newly delivered aircraft. This led to the Federal Aviation Administrator, Mike Whitaker , capping Boeing at 38 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft per month for assembly and temporarily grounded 170 planes.
Buttigieg explained his concerns in a report with Reuters , noting: "I think the culture change at Boeing is something that is a real work in progress and the only way to fully assess it will be to see they can consistently improve results." Following the incident, several safety concerns were exposed for the Washington-based plane manufacturer, ultimately leading to the departure of the then Chief Executive Officer, Dave Calhoun . Boeing hasn't had the best run in the last decade, with several fatal crashes for its MAX variant , which killed 346 people.
This excludes the latest Jeju Air crash in Muan, South Korea, that left 179 people killed on an arriving flight from Thailand. A Jeju Air 737-800 crash at Muan Airport claims hundreds of lives. Read the latest Boei.
