Ed Clark, executive in charge of the Boeing 737 Max production program, was removed on Wednesday, the company said in an email to employees.
Stan Deal, CEO of Boeing’s commercial plane unit, wrote in a company memo that Clark would be leaving the company after nearly 18 years, according to a copy obtained by CBS News. Clark will be replaced by Katie Ringgold, former vice president of 737 delivery operations, effective immediately, Deal said.
The executive’s ousting follows a string of problems and safety errors with the Boeing 737 planes. Six Alaska Airlines passengers sued Boeing after a door plug flew off the aircraft midflight shortly after it took off from Oregon in January. The door plug came off of a Boeing 737 Max 9, leaving a gaping hole in the left side of the aircraft and causing oxygen masks to drop from the ceiling.
After the Federal Aviation Administration grounded dozens of Boeing 737 Max 9 planes following the Alaska Airlines incident, the company’s stock nosedived more than 8%. The situation is being investigated by the FAA, and Boeing hired a retired Navy admiral to conduct an independent investigation of its quality management systems.
Since then, there have been several other incidents involving 737 aircraft. An All Nippon Airways 737 aircraft was forced to reroute its flight to an airport outside of Sapporo, Japan, after a crack appeared in the outermost four layers of the cockpit window. Another All Nippon Airways 737 collided with a Delta Air Lines plane, a Boeing 717, at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport in January while it was preparing for takeoff.
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The company has faced blowback in the past for numerous other incidents. Its most infamous mishap occurred in October 2018, when a Lion Air Max plane crashed in Indonesia and killed all 189 people on board just 13 minutes after takeoff. A year later, an investigation found the crash was due to aircraft design flaws and maintenance problems. Just five months after the Lion Air crash, an Ethiopian Airlines Max flight crashed for similar reasons, killing all 157 people on board on March 10, 2019.
Boeing’s delivery of the 737 Max 7 was delayed until 2024 in April 2023. The company later announced it found a problem that involved improperly drilled holes on the air pressure bulkhead. Following the Alaska Airlines door plug incident, United Airlines confirmed it found “loose door plugs” and “installation issues” on an undisclosed number of Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft.
