Its crises were exacerbated by the epidemic
Boeing is experiencing real problems amid unprecedented spotlights on it
The 737 Max was involved in two accidents that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019.
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Dave Calhoun has the difficult task of restoring confidence in the company.
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The Federal Aviation Administration has asked to freeze delivery of the Boeing 787 to check data.
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It seemed that “Boeing” faced accumulated technical problems, in recent months, from electrical failures in the cockpit of the “Max” planes, deformations in the hull of the “787” plane, and delays in the delivery of the “777X”, but many observers say that the matter is the result of strictness. in supervising its performance.
Canaccord Genuity aviation specialist Ken Herbert sums it up by saying that, unfortunately, Boeing is currently under a magnifying glass, and that is justified.
After the two crashes of its new 737 Max plane that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019, the Seattle giant has been the focus of several investigations.
Its president, Dave Calhoun, took office in January 2020 and has the difficult task of restoring confidence in the company.
He will have to explain his position (today, Wednesday) when the group's quarterly results are published, regarding the recent setbacks.
Boeing announced in mid-July that it had detected new defects in the long-range 787 Dreamliner, which were enough to reduce production rates and delay the delivery of the aircraft.
The group discovered several manufacturing defects last summer, particularly in the airframe.
The Federal Aviation Administration also warned Boeing in May that it may order more test flights before certification of the 777X wide-body plane in the future, due to a lack of technical data.
Electrical problems in the cockpit of some 737 Max planes in April led to the temporary freezing of about 100 planes delivered to customers.
The group also failed to deliver the two new models of the presidential plane "Air Force One", while the supply plane "KC.46" faces several problems.
company culture
There are several reasons for these problems, and they may have been exacerbated by the pandemic, as the group and its suppliers face the same problems with staff and supply as the rest of the economy.
The decision to move 787 production to a single site in South Carolina may also have caused confusion.
And a parliamentary report published last September on the Max incidents highlighted a change in the company's culture, after the merger with McDonnell Douglas in 1997, with more attention paid to financial profits and less to solving engineering problems.
In particular, this report pointed the finger at the "culture of concealment" that prevailed at the manufacturer, as well as the weak oversight of the Federal Aviation Administration.
"The investigations showed the failure of the two parties, one of them in performing its role as a manufacturing group, and the other in its supervisory role," said analyst Bertrand Filmer, head of the aviation consultancy.
"They're trying to get it right, the FAA, by being intransigent in what they ask for, and they inevitably find shortcomings," he says.
The same opinion is expressed by the head of the Air Transport Safety Corporation, Hassan Shahidi, explaining that the recommendations issued after the "Max" malfunctions are currently being implemented, with new risk management systems translated "with more supervision and transparency."
Communication defect
Boeing says it has worked "systematically" over the past two years to improve safety.
In the case of the 787, for example, the company "made the decision to slow down the rate of production to carry out additional inspections and possibly carry out some repair work, even if it sometimes affected operations."
The FAA, for its part, insists it is ready to check all aspects of safety.
For example, in May when Boeing proposed an algorithm as a way to check 787s, the Federal Aviation Administration requested that deliveries be suspended so that the data behind the proposal could be examined.
A source within the FAA told AFP that it no longer wanted to accept the group's claims, but rather wanted to see the data.
Ken Herbert of Canaccord Genuity says the recent setbacks to the 787 highlight internal communication problems, as Dave Calhoun has repeatedly emphasized that the problem will be resolved quickly.
Herbert adds that the issue is "the ability to identify bad news and resolve it in a timely manner... This gives the impression that the company is not approaching the situation from a comprehensive perspective."
• A parliamentary report published last September on the Max accidents highlighted a change in the company's culture after the merger with McDonnell Douglas in 1997, with more attention paid to financial profits and less to solving engineering problems.
When Boeing proposed an algorithm last May to check 787s, the Federal Aviation Administration requested that deliveries be suspended, so that the data behind the proposal could be examined.
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