By Jasper Ward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Thursday he had asked Boeing’s CEO to come to Washington, D.C., “as soon as possible” to discuss quality and safety issues at the company.
The U.S. planemaker has been under scrutiny after a series of crises involving safety, including when a door panel flew off a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 in mid-air last year.
Duffy added he would “visit Boeing myself to evaluate firsthand the measures being implemented to ensure its planes meet the highest safety standards,” in a post on X.Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The door panel incident resulted in the Federal Aviation Administration maintaining tougher oversight of the company.
During his confirmation hearing, Duffy said the federal government needed to make sure the company was implementing its safety plan.
He also said at the time that he would maintain a cap on production of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes put in place after the mid-air panel blowout last year, until he is satisfied it can be safely raised.
In January 2024, then FAA chief Mike Whitaker imposed the 38 planes per month production cap after the Alaska Airlines incident.
While Boeing has yet to reach production of 38 MAX jets a month, limiting production of its dominant cash cow delays its financial recovery and prevents it from narrowing a gap in the global jet market against archrival Airbus.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Jamie Freed)
