Boeing CEO, top executives to step down amid safety scandal

Boeing announced that CEO Dave Calhoun and other top executives will step down as part of a management shake-up prompted by safety and quality concerns over a mid-flight door panel blowout earlier this year, CNBC News reported.

Calhoun told Boeing employees on Monday that he would leave the company at the end of 2024.

"As you all know, the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident was a watershed moment for Boeing," Calhoun wrote. "We must continue to respond to this accident with humility and complete transparency. We also must inculcate a total commitment to safety and quality at every level of our company."

"The eyes of the world are on us, and I know we will come through this moment a better company, building on all the learnings we accumulated as we worked together to rebuild Boeing over the last number of years," Calhoun added.

He told CNBC that the decision to step down was "100%" his own.

Calhoun took over the position in January 2020 after two plane crashes — one in 2018 and another in 2019 — prompted the company's board to fire his predecessor, Dennis A. Muilenburg. The crashes, which killed all on board, were caused by issues with the planes' flight stabilization feature.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal also retired from the company, effective immediately, amid the management overhaul. He has been replaced by Stephanie Pope, Boeing's chief operating officer.

Additionally, the chairman of the board, Larry Kellner, will resign and not seek reelection in May. Steve Mollenkopf, a Boeing director, will replace Kellner and lead the board in selecting a new CEO.

In February, Deal told NBC News that the manufacturer had removed Ed Clark, the head of its 737 Max program. Clark managed Boeing's Renton, Washington, facility where the assembly of the Alaska Airlines plane involved in the January mid-flight panel blowout was assembled. At the time, Deal called the management reshuffling part of Boeing's "enhanced focus on ensuring that every airplane we deliver meets or exceeds all quality and safety requirements."

The National Transportation Safety Board informed the Senate Commerce Committee earlier this month that Boeing is "unable to find records" for repairs made to the airplane that experienced the panel blowout. Before delivering the aircraft to Alaska Airlines, the plane underwent rivet repairs, which required the door panel to be temporarily removed.

"To date, we still do not know who performed the work to open, reinstall, and close the door plug on the accident aircraft," NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy wrote in a letter to senators. "Boeing has informed us that they are unable to find the records documenting this work."

Boeing has repeatedly stated that it is cooperating with the NTSB's investigation into the incident.

"With respect to documentation, if the door plug removal was undocumented there would be no documentation to share," Boeing said.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!