Consequences stemming from several incidents that threatened passenger safety on Boeing airplanes are being felt on the corporate level.
On January 5, 2024, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, a Boeing 737 Max 9, experienced a terrifying mid-air incident when a door plug—a panel in place of an optional exit door located near the rear of the aircraft—ripped off about 20 minutes into the flight from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California. The plane was flying at an altitude of more than 4,800 meters when this occurred.
Fortunately, the two seats next to the panel were vacant, and there were no serious injuries. However, several passengers did require medical attention after the pilots made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport. The hole in the fuselage was described as being “as wide as a refrigerator,” and the wind blowing out of it was so powerful that it even sucked the shirt off a teenage boy sitting nearby.
Boeing is now replacing the head of its 737 Max program at the company’s Renton, Washington, facility.
Ed Clark, who has led the Max program since 2021, will be replaced by Katie Ringgold, Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief Stan Deal told staff in an email Wednesday.
This is not the only change in leadership that Deal said he is making as the company continues to drive “BCA’s [Boeing Commercial Airplanes] enhanced focus on ensuring that every airplane we deliver meets or exceeds all quality and safety requirements.”
The January incident resulted in a temporary nationwide grounding of all Max 9s with door plugs and a severe hit to Boeing’s reputation, with a consequent drop in stock prices. In a preliminary report, the National Transportation Safety Board discovered four key bolts were missing from the door plug that fell off the jet.
Just today there was another alarming incident on a Boeing aircraft when one of the wings started to disintegrate during a flight from San Francisco to Boston. After passengers noticed the dangerous state of the wing the pilot diverted the flight and made an emergency landing in Denver. The 165 passengers on board were all safely transferred to another plane, but incidents like these have severely undermined travelers’ confidence in Boeing.
