Boeing Co.'s top executives on Thursday submitted a quality and safety improvement plan to the Federal Aviation Administration, vowing to address systemic problems that have tarnished the company's reputation and put it at the center of multiple federal investigations.
Boeing detailed these and other steps during a three-hour meeting with FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker, during which the company submitted a “comprehensive action plan” that the FAA ordered in February.
Whitaker had called on Boeing to implement sweeping safety improvements within 90 days after a center panel in the cabin, known as a door plug, ruptured on a 737 Max 9 jet flying at about 16,000 feet on Jan. 5. No one was seriously injured during that flight.
In a statement on Thursday, the FAA said the agency's “senior” leaders will be “meeting weekly with Boeing to review performance metrics, progress and challenges they face in implementing the changes.”
Boeing was also asked to address the findings of a panel of experts convened by the FAA last year that found deep-rooted problems with the company's safety culture. Whitaker said Boeing has accepted all of the panel's recommendations.
“We need a strong, unwavering commitment to safety and quality that will be sustained over the long term,” Whitaker said at a news conference Thursday. “This is systemic change, and we have a lot of work to do.”
The FAA did not provide details about the steps Boeing outlined in its plan.
Whitaker said he plans to continue meeting weekly with Boeing to make sure the measures are being implemented accurately and in a timely manner. Whitaker, who spoke with Boeing Chief Executive Officer David Calhoun on Thursday, plans to meet again with the Boeing CEO in September. Calhoun has said he plans to step down at the end of the year.
Whitaker said there is no deadline for Boeing to implement the changes.
He also said Boeing has developed six measures that the FAA and the company can track progress on. The FAA will also continue rigorous inspections of both Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, the supplier that makes the 737 Max jet's airframes. Boeing has said it plans to acquire Spirit to get tighter control over the quality of parts Spirit produces for it.
Boeing made numerous changes in the months after the panel rupture, including adding more internal and supplier inspections, strengthening training, giving workers additional tools and launching an independent review of its quality systems and supplier oversight.
The company held more than 20 meetings at locations around the world to gather employee feedback on how to improve quality, and the company said more than 70,000 Boeing employees participated in those meetings, resulting in tens of thousands of comments.
The action plan is the latest in a series of steps the FAA has taken to drive safety improvements across Boeing during a tumultuous year for the company. The FAA has limited the number of 737 Max jets Boeing can make per month, audited production lines and is investigating whether the company is complying with federal safety standards.
Whitaker said the FAA will continue to impose restrictions on Boeing until it is satisfied with the company's progress. He said the FAA and Boeing have not yet discussed increasing the number of MAX planes Boeing can produce per month to more than 38, and that Boeing is currently producing the planes at much less than that pace but has said it wants to accelerate production later this year.
“We will not approve any production increases beyond the current caps until we are satisfied,” Whitaker said at a news conference. “At the end of the day, we will continue to ensure that every aircraft that rolls off the production line is safe and reliable.”
Boeing is expected to announce more details about its plans soon.
The Justice Department has also opened a criminal investigation into the Jan. 5 incident. A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board suggests the MAX 9 plane may have left a Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, with panels that were not bolted down.
Boeing also faces potential legal repercussions from past crashes involving its aircraft. The Department of Justice announced this month that Boeing breached a 2021 settlement it reached after 737 Max planes crashed, killing hundreds of people, in 2018 and 2019. The decision could expose Boeing to criminal charges of conspiring to defraud the FAA.
The Justice Department found that Boeing failed to “design, implement and enforce” a compliance and ethics program that was a condition of the settlement. The company plans to appeal the Justice Department's decision.
The 2021 settlement was criticized for being too lenient on Boeing and for being concluded without consulting the families of the 346 people who died in the 737 MAX crashes. The crashes occurred in Indonesia and Ethiopia and led to the grounding of all 737 MAX aircraft for 20 months. Investigations found that both crashes were caused by a malfunction of the flight control system designed to prevent the plane from stalling in flight.