New Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has told the chief executive of embattled aircraft manufacturer Boeing to travel to Washington DC “as soon as possible” to explain what steps the company is taking to improve the quality and safety issues that have plagued Boeing.
In a short post on X, Duffy said that following the meeting, he would also travel to Boeing facilities to see for himself how new safety measures were being implemented.
Boeing has been under intense regulatory scrutiny following a series of serious incidents in the last few years, the most recent of which was the explosive mid-cabin exit door blowout of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737MAX during takeoff from Portland International Airport in January 2024.
“I’ve requested that the Boeing CEO come to D.C. as soon as possible to provide a full accounting of the steps the company is taking to address its quality and safety issues,” Duffy said in his post.
“Following that, I will visit Boeing myself to evaluate firsthand the measures being implemented to ensure its planes meet the highest safety standards,” Duffy continued.
Boeing has already agreed a safety action plan with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to improve safety oversight and quality standards covering some of the manufacturer’s best-selling aircraft models, including the Boeing 737MAX and 787 Dreamliner.
As recently as May 2024, however, Boeing was hit with fresh claims of misconduct over allegations that workers at its 787 Dreamliner production line regularly skipped important conformance testing.
Boeing had faced claims that it bullied and attempted to silence safety whistleblowers, but the company now says it ‘celebrates’ employees who come forward with safety issues.
It’s not just the federal government that is keeping a close eye on safety practices within Boeing, as some major airline customers of the manufacturer have also started to send their own inspectors to its facilities.
Alaska Airlines even has its own team stationed at Boeing’s 737MAX factory in Renton, near Seattle, to ensure new airplanes destined to join the carrier’s fleet are up to standard.
A team of three Aircraft Acquisition Representatives from Alaska Airlines now spends five days a week on-site at the Boeing factory in Renton, which built the 737MAX-9 aircraft that suffered the exit door blowout in January 2024.
In addition, the airline says it has ‘augmented’ the oversight team with three specialist Maintenance and Engineering employees who work various shifts and remain on-call to address issues at any time of day or night.
