On March 25,Boeing announced that management would make a major change.

Firstly, Boeing's President and CEO Dave Calhoun announced his resignation as CEO by the end of 2024.

Secondly, the chairman of the board, Larry Kellner, informed the board that he does not intend to run for re-election at the annual shareholders' meeting in May. The board of directors elected Steve Mollenkopf to replace Kerner as the independent chairman of the board.

In addition, Stan Deal, President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), a major subsidiary of Boeing, will retire from the company, and Stephanie Pope has been appointed as the new leader of BCA, effective immediately.

The surging negative public opinion

In a letter released by the entire staff, Calhoun stated, "As is well known, the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident was a watershed moment for Boeing. We must continue to respond to this accident with humility and complete transparency. We must also instill a comprehensive commitment to safety and quality at all levels of the company."

The Alaska Airlines Flight No.1282 accident mentioned by Calhoun refers to the incident on January 5th of this year when a new Boeing 737 Max 9 from Alaska Airlines was flying at high altitude when a closed cabin door fell off, causing the cabin to depressurize and ultimately making an emergency landing in Portland International. After inspecting the aircraft, investigators found that four bolts on the 737 MAX 9 aircraft that were supposed to secure the emergency hatch in place were missing. Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci also revealed that after almost a disaster, the company has found "many" Boeing 737 Max 9 bolts to be loose.This matter seems like a Pandora's box, opening up Boeing's nightmare like 2024.

Since the Alaska Airlines flight accident, Boeing has been involved in multiple safety incidents. Moreover, there are more and more locations where aircraft malfunctions occur, from emergency doors to engines, landing tires, wings, and so on. Even in January, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was forced to postpone his trip back to the United States due to serious failure of his Boeing aircraft when he was visiting abroad.

After the Alaska Airlines flight accident, the Federal Aviation Administration began a 6-week investigation into Boeing. The survey found that out of all 89 reviews, Boeing only passed 56, with a high failure rate of 37%. The Federal Aviation Administration of the United States has discovered a total of 97 non conformance issues with Boeing.

In addition, Spirit AeroSystems, which produces Boeing 737 Max aircraft fuselage components, has also been reviewed, and more than half (out of a total of 7) of the 13 review items failed.Amidst frequent accidents, a whistleblower who had publicly questioned Boeing's production standards was recently found dead, further pushing Boeing's negative public opinion to its peak.The informant's name is John Barnett. In mid month, he was found dead in a car. After investigation by the police, Barnett was shot dead, and it is preliminarily believed to be suicide.

At the age of 62, Barnett is considered the whistleblower for Boeing's production safety. He worked at Boeing for more than 30 years and retired in 2017. Before retirement, Barnett served as the Quality Control Manager at Boeing. After retirement, Barnett repeatedly exposed issues with Boeing's internal quality control to the media and filed reports and complaints with the US government. The relevant case was not yet concluded, and Barnett was found dead. For a while, conspiracy theories about Boeing and Barnett were rampant.

In a letter from all staff, Calhoun said, "The world's attention is focused on us, and I know that we will build on all the experiences and lessons we have accumulated in the past few years of working together to rebuild Boeing, and through this moment, become a better company."

He said, "I want to thank each and every one of you for how you have addressed this challenge and the ongoing work to ensure that we prove to all stakeholders that the future of Boeing meets everything they expect."

At the end of the entire letter, Calhoun said, "As we begin this transitional period, I would like to assure you that we will continue to focus on completing the work we have done together, to restore stability to our company after experiencing extraordinary challenges over the past five years. Safety and quality are our top priorities in everything we do."

Who can lead Boeing out of the crisis?

Calhoun has been a director of Boeing since 2009 and succeeded Dennis Muilenburg as the CEO of Boeing in January 2020. At that time, Calhoun took office to lead Boeing through a serious safety accident crisis. In just two years from 2018 to 2019, Boeing experienced two 737 MAX plane crashes, resulting in nearly 350 deaths. After the plane crash, Milenberg was fired.

Calhoun's "taking orders in times of crisis" briefly suppressed Boeing's security trust crisis. After nearly two years of global grounding, he was responsible for supervising the return of the Max aircraft to service, and subsequently the orders for the aircraft rapidly increased. In 2021, the Boeing board even raised the mandatory retirement age for the CEO, allowing Calhoun to continue in office.

But a series of accidents this year have also made Calhoun's position unstable. Because these accidents all point to one thing, which is that Boeing's internal quality control has not been fundamentally improved. The security trust crisis that was briefly suppressed has returned to the public eye, and now, Calhoun is no longer the person who can lead Boeing out of the crisis.

Analysts generally believe that this management reshuffle is positive for Boeing, but emphasize that it largely depends on Calhoun's successor and a change in company culture from the top.

After the news of management changes was released, Boeing's stock price rose by 1.37%. Since the beginning of this year, the stock has fallen by nearly 25%.

Airlines are also concerned about related issues. Due to multiple regulatory inspections by Boeing, aircraft production has been affected, delivery times have been extended, and multiple airlines have also been negatively affected to varying degrees. Last week, it was reported that CEOs of several major US airlines have requested a meeting with Chairman Kerner to discuss safety issues and potential delays in dozens of planes over the next few years due to various investigations into the safety of Boeing MAX aircraft.

But some Boeing critics believe that the restructuring of Boeing's top management is not enough, and Boeing needs to focus more on safety issues rather than producing more aircraft. Ed Pierson, former manager of the Boeing 737 aircraft factory and current director of the Safety Foundation, said, "It's difficult to change this culture, but Boeing (the people who make airplanes) have the ability to do it." Pearson said, "These employees need to feel valued and supported, not just guided and forced to produce airplanes."

Richard Aboulafia, a long-time aerospace analyst and current consultant at an aerospace power consulting firm, said that the management reshuffle "could be a critical moment in Boeing's history, and could be a very positive moment," but the outcome depends on the next CEO. Abulafia stated that rebuilding Boeing will be a "very difficult and long road". He said that having someone with technical skills take on higher leadership positions would be an advantage.

For the successor to Boeing's CEO, Abrafia believes that Patrick Shanahan, the current President and CEO of Spirit AeroSystems, is a "good choice". Abrafia's views have gained support from many people, but in a statement on Monday, the spokesperson stated that Shanahan's "only primary task remains to establish a safety culture at Spirit."

Boeing has stated that the new chairman of the board, Morenkopf, will lead the process of selecting Boeing's next CEO. Boeing did not disclose whether the new CEO would interrupt external hiring or be promoted internally.