Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will step down at the end of 2024 amid some other leadership changes at the beleaguered aeronautics company.
Calhoun, 67, announced the news Monday in a letter to employees, specifically mentioning the Alaska Airlines cabin blowout in January that put Boeing back under intense public scrutiny.
“As you all know, the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident was a watershed moment for Boeing,” Calhoun wrote. “The eyes of the world are on us, and I know we will come through this moment a better company.”
Calhoun’s departure will be part of a massive corporate shake-up at Boeing. Board chairman Larry Kellner will also depart. He’ll be replaced by former Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf, who has been on Boeing’s board of directors since 2020. Mollenkopf’s first job will be to pick a new CEO.
Additionally, the president and CEO of Boeing’s commercial airplanes unit, Stan Deal, will retire effective immediately. He will be replaced by Stephanie Pope.
The Alaska Airlines blowout on a Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft and the subsequent fallout already cost one Boeing executive, Ed Clark, his job back in February. Clark was in charge of the company’s 737 program.
Calhoun initially took over at Boeing after his predecessor, Dennis Muilenburg, was canned in the aftermath of two 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed a total of 346 people.
In his letter, Calhoun said his decision to leave was his and that he’d been thinking about a departure for “some time.”
The Federal Aviation Administration increased scrutiny of Boeing after the Jan. 5 blowout on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. When the feds audited Boeing’s factory outside Seattle, they gave the company failing grades on more than 30 aspects of production.
Additionally, the feds put a limit on 737 production, frustrating airline executives who were expecting more planes.
As the company has been mired in controversy, smaller incidents have become worldwide news. In early March, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner from Australia to New Zealand went into a sudden nosedive, injuring several passengers. An investigation later found the nosedive was likely caused by a flight attendant bumping into the pilot’s controls.
A few weeks later, a Boeing aircraft landed safely in Oregon while missing an exterior panel, which was not located after a brief ground search.
