The strange thing about Boeing Co.’s crisis is that so many people saw it coming — and tried to stop it. The planemaker’s safety problems have been obvious since two 737 Max jets crashed in late 2018 and early 2019, killing 346 people. Boeing’s engineers were warning managers of potential quality problems as far back as 2001. But Boeing executives must not have listened and the 737 Max crashes apparently weren’t a sufficiently loud wake-up call.
So far this year, a panel has blown off a Boeing plane in dramatic fashion, both the chairman and chief executive officer said they are stepping down and the company’s share price has tumbled 27%. So why haven’t those occupying the C-Suite heeded the engineers flagging safety issues? Why did they — according to whistleblowers — silence and ignore those employees? These are the most pressing questions for Boeing’s incoming leadership team. Without clear answers, the new…
