Boeing suspension fall out: CEO Dennis Muilenburg resigns
In what appears like a fall out of the recent decision by airplane manufacturer, Boeing to halt further production of the troubled 737 Max 8 aircraft model, CEO of the company, Dennis Muilenburg has formally resigned his leadership position.
His resignation which took immediate effect was disclosed recently by the company’s management and, following the development, the company has announced Boeing’s Chairman, David Calhoun as his replacement.
Prior to his announced resignation, an earlier statement attributed to Muilenburg, Boeing’s former CEO in October reads “Accountability starts with me”.
It would be recalled that only recently, the company took a major decision to suspend henceforth, further production of its popular flagship 737 Max 8 aircraft model which had crashed on two occasions since 2018.
The airplane manufacturer had been the focus of numerous congressional investigations recently, and in the mist of unending controversies, the manufacturer decided to suspend production of the troubled airplane.
Following series of ongoing congressional investigations, the airplane was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as well as several other international airline regulators since March this year.
The latest grounding of the MAX 8 Airplane by FAA is the longest grounding exercise in the long term history of the organisation even as a recent toll on the Boeing stock shows a continuous decline of about 4.27 percent in business fortunes of the manufacture.
It would be recalled that Lion Airlines Flight 610 crashed in October 2018, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 30 crashed in March 2019. In all, a total of 346 passengers and crew members died in the two tragedies.
While the 737 Max 8 remained grounded, authorities believe the culprit in the crashes is a sensor that forced the jet’s nose downwards without the pilot’s knowledge.
In a recent release, the company had said: “We believe this decision is least disruptive to maintaining long-term production system and supply chain health,” adding that “This decision is driven by a number of factors, including the extension of certification into 2020, the uncertainty about the timing and conditions of return to service and global training approvals and the importance of ensuring that we can prioritize the delivery of stored aircraft”.
Boeing previously announced a rosier timeline for the 737 Max 8, citing mid-December as an appropriate time for recertification.
Commenting on the development, aviation expert Brett Snyder said: “The issue here is determining, do we keep making these airplanes? If so, do we do it at the same rate, or slow it down again?”
“They have this backlog piling up, they are making these planes and they can’t deliver them to anyone,” he added.
But that doesn’t mean Boeing will kill the 737 Max 8, first introduced in 2017 to compete with Airbus’ more efficient A320neo.
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