Boeing has been getting a lot of attention lately because of some technology problems. Experts say that fixing the company’s attitude of focusing on making money could stop issues from happening in the future.
Starliner, a Boeing spaceship that was having problems, came back to Earth last Friday. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, two pilots, took off on the Starliner on June 5 for an 8-day test trip. However, the mission was stretched until 2025, and NASA decided to return the ship without the crew. The men will now likely come back in February on a SpaceX Dragon.
Steve Stich, head of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said that the choice was made to give future crewed flights more security. The goal of this extended trip is to help with future repairs to the Starliner ship.
The Starliner problems are just one of many that Boeing has been having lately. The company stopped testing its 777-9 fleet last month because of a problem with the engine housing.
In March, 50 people were hurt when a LATAM Airlines flight dropped altitude. In response, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a review of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. The National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) is also looking into Alaska Airlines flight 1282, where a broken plug caused an escape door to fall off in the middle of the trip. The NTSB may need up to 18 months to finish its probe and make safety suggestions.
Boeing says it is the world’s top aircraft company, but problems have been raised about its past. An internal Boeing study found that there were 2,123 crashes from 1959 to 2022, with 300 of them happening in the last ten years. It was thought that about 10% of these crashes were deadly. Even with the problems, an MIT study shows that flying has become safer over time, with 7.5% fewer crashes every year since 1968.
Richard Aboulafia, executive director of AeroDynamic Advisory, and other experts say that Boeing’s current problems can be traced back to when it merged with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing switched its attention from research to making money after the merger, which hurt the company in the long run. When engineers found technical problems, they were often not taken seriously. This way of doing things led to accidents like the 2018 Lion Air 737 Max crash.
Analyst Bjorn Fehrm at Leeham Company LLC thinks that Boeing’s problems are caused by the way it manages its employees. He says that if companies follow the right steps, there should be no mistakes in making airplanes today. Boeing’s efforts to cut costs have unfortunately made experts quiet and ignored safety concerns.
In July, Boeing named Kelly Ortberg as its new CEO. Many people think that Ortberg, a seasoned mechanical engineer, is the best person to fix Boeing’s culture issues. Even though it will take time, experts believe Ortberg can help get the company back on track. Some people think things will change in a few months, while others, like Fehrm, believe it will take five years for Boeing to recover fully.
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