The US transportation secretary announced on Wednesday afternoon that no grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 would return to service “until it is safe”, after Alaska Airlines announced the cancellation of all flights on its 737 Max 9 planes at the direction of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Pete Buttigieg said he was “not putting a timeline” on when the FAA will allow the planes to resume flights.
Every plane that the US aircraft manufacturer delivers “needs to be 100% safe”, Buttigieg added.
He said he has spoken to the head of Boeing and told him the company needs to do everything it can to establish 100% confidence in its planes.
Boeing is in a death spiral. Instead of a company run by engineers saying hey let’s build something new that pushes boundaries and the market will buy.
They now have a bunch of finance guys who say hey let’s squeeze another few billion in profits out of an existing product. Wait the new existing product doesn’t sell as well as our projections? Let’s cut costs so we can maintain profit growth for our shareholders and get those sweet bonuses.