Boeing CEO Steps Down Amidst 737 MAX Crisis

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will be stepping down from his position by the end of 2024 amidst the massive controversy that the aerospace giant is currently facing.

According to reports by CNBC, chairman of the board, Larry Kellner, will also not be standing for reelection. His successor, Steve Mollenkopf, who has been a Boeing director since 2020 and is a former CEO of Qualcomm, will lead the board in picking a new CEO.

Stan Deal, president and chief executive of Boeing’s commercial airplanes unit, is also leaving the company effective immediately. 

These departures come in the wake of increasing pressure from regulators, who have called for major changes at the company after a host of quality and manufacturing flaws on Boeing planes.

Boeing 737 MAX engineering faults

Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft has gained huge notoriety worldwide. The first incident that put the aircraft under scrutiny was Lion Air Flight 610 in October 2018. Poor maintenance combined with a fault in the airplane’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) caused it to crash, killing 189 people.

Just 5 months later, another 737 MAX aircraft crashed. Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 also suffered from an error with the aircraft’s MCAS, which resulted in 157 fatalities, bringing the total death toll to 346.

The aircraft was eventually grounded in order to resolve the issues before once again being cleared to fly by most nations in 2021.

However, the 37 MAX faced another devastating accident in January 2024. Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 experienced a mid-flight blowout, followed by uncontrolled decompression. A door plug had failed, causing an emergency exit door to get ripped off the aircraft. Fortunately, the seats near the door were empty and the aircraft was able to make an emergency landing with no casualties. The situation was made worse by the fact that the aircraft in question was only two months old.

Finance vs engineering

Calhoun, who is a long time member at Boeing, became chairman of the company in late 2019, when the board stripped his predecessor Dennis Muilenburg of that title.

Boeing has a long and storied history, with a reputation of putting engineering excellence over financial performance. The company prided itself as setting the gold standard for aircraft construction. However, critics of the company have argued that this vision had changed over the past few decades, pointing towards the 1997 merger with McDonell Douglas for the shift in focus on saving money.

Calhoun himself has no background in engineering. Instead, he has served as senior managing director and head of portfolio operations at investment firm The Blackstone Group, as well as CEO of Nielsen after 26 years at General Electric.