Embattled Boeing Offers Plan To Fix Its Safety Problems. Will It Work?

Boeing has pledged to fix its quality-control problems by strengthening internal audits, oversight and training, federal regulators said Thursday — but it may not be enough to satisfy Boeing’s critics.

The plan covers a range of improvements to internal audits, employee training, quality control and manufacturing processes at the company, which has faced a glaring spotlight in Washington in the months since a door panel blew off one of its passenger jets, Federal Aviation Administration officials said. The FAA is not releasing the plan, FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker told reporters on Thursday, saying it was Boeing’s to share.

“This is a guide for a new way for Boeing to do business,” Whitaker said, adding that the FAA and Boeing have been working together for months on the plan presented on Thursday.

But he said that the flying public should be assured that the FAA is “ensuring that those airplanes are safe,” and “increasing our oversight to an appropriate level.”

Stephanie Pope, CEO of Boeing's commercial airplane division, said their plan is built on employee feedback as well as the FAA's requirements and input, and said it includes "major investments" in workforce training as well as simplified plans and processes, getting rid of root causes of defects and improving the company's safety culture.

"We are confident in the plan that we have put forward and are committed to continuously improving. We will work under the FAA’s oversight and uphold our responsibility to the flying public to continue delivering safe, high-quality airplanes. We are also grateful for our customers’ patience as we implement this plan and return to predictable deliveries," Pope said in a statement Thursday.

But it’s not the first time that Boeing has promised it will clean house following a disaster, and the plan submitted Thursday — which Whitaker called a “roadmap for continuous improvement” — is unlikely to quell concerns from the planemaker’s sharpest critics, who have argued that Boeing has for years prioritized profits over workmanship.

Whitaker acknowledged that for Boeing, "implementation is the key word," and "that’s really the hard part.”

He noted that the agency will continue to cap Boeing’s 737 MAX production line until it is satisfied, and that the FAA will continuously evaluate Boeing’s progress toward meeting its plan, including weekly meetings and performance metrics he said his agency will monitor “in real time.”

Those changes must be across the board — not just its 737 MAX line, which was the plane type involved in the Alaska Airlines incident, he said.

Details released by the FAA are sparse, mostly hewing to broad categories, such as “enhancing supplier oversight” and “simplifying process and procedures.”

Whitaker did not elaborate on most items, beyond saying he expected the plan to be comprehensive, detailed and something that “deals with the things we know need to be addressed like quality management, more robust safety management system, an environment where employees feel that they can speak up and raise safety issues, and better manufacturing processes.”

Whitaker is set to meet with House Transportation Committee lawmakers next week to discuss the plan.

The plan, which the FAA demanded earlier this year, is part of an effort to tighten oversight of Boeing following a January incident on Alaska Airlines where an incorrectly installed door plug flew off mid-air. That incident kicked off multiple federal investigations, attention from Congress and a leadership shakeup at Boeing itself.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because it probably is — Boeing was in a similar situation just a few years ago, after a new flight control software feature malfunctioned on two 737 MAX 8 planes, causing them to crash and claiming the lives of 346 people in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia.

Congress ordered some changes to the way the FAA oversees the planemaker intended to force the agency to rely less on allowing Boeing to essentially certify large swaths of its plane designs, with the FAA’s oversight. Some in Congress have pledged a fresh legislative response, but decided not to use the most logical legislative vehicle for it, a major aviation policy bill that was signed into law this month — and now likely won’t act until next year at the earliest.

Whitaker said the plan is only the beginning for Boeing and its suppliers, who are expected to fine-tune their processes as time goes on. He said the FAA will continue its “constant engagement” with Boeing, including inspectors surveying the factory plant floor on a daily basis and regular meetings at all levels of the company.

The approach is more “hands on,” he said, and includes “talking to folks on the floor and getting a more accurate picture of what's happening.”

In February, FAA announced it was requiring the action plan from Boeing to address its “systemic quality control issues.” The agency also required Boeing to cap its production of the 737 MAX line, though Boeing said it already had production limits in place prior to the FAA edict.

In addition to investigations from FAA, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Justice Department — which is currently determining whether to prosecute Boeing after concluding it breached a prior agreement with the agency — Senate lawmakers have held two separate panels into Boeing’s recent safety lapses. And some intend to hold more.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) in recent weeks told POLITICO he intends to hold another hearing before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which he chairs, in June — and expects CEO David Calhoun to testify.

“We’re expecting, at some point, representatives of Boeing to be there,” Blumenthal said on May 22.

And Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee, recently said he also wants to see more Boeing hearings before his committee. “There are real concerns about Boeing,” Cruz said earlier this month. “I'd like to see an oversight hearing with senior executives from Boeing testify.”

Chris Marquette contributed to this report.