Late last month, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a scathing report on Boeing's safety culture, as reported by Bloomberg. This followed a January incident in which a Boeing plane's door flew off after takeoff during an Alaska Airlines flight.
In the report, an FAA-appointed panel of experts exposed procedural problems and deficient communication between senior management and other staff members. "I really hope this is a wake-up call to the Boeing Company," said Rich Plunkett, a member of the expert review panel.
The report shows that Boeing still struggles to ensure that employees feel safe to speak up when they spot issues, and that those concerns are elevated up to the executives who can act upon them. This is despite the scrutiny Boeing faced following the crashes of two 737 Max planes in 2018 and 2019, which killed 346 people in total.
“We will carefully review the panel’s assessment and learn from their findings, as we continue our comprehensive efforts to improve our safety and quality programs,” Boeing said in a statement.
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