As Boeing prepares to submit a plan to address safety problems, Federal Aviation Administrator Mike Whitaker said the airplane manufacturer has a “long road” ahead of them.
In early January, the door panel on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 detached, forcing the Alaska Airlines to make an emergency landing. An FAA audit that followed found serious problems, and in February, the FAA gave Boeing 90 days to create a comprehensive plan to tackle the safety concerns and prohibited it from expanding production of 737 MAX planes.
The plan, which is due next week, “is not the end of the process,” Whitaker said. “It’s the beginning and it’s going to be a long road to get Boeing back to where they need to be making safe airplanes.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Wednesday that Boeing has taken encouraging steps to improve safety, but that it was necessary to see changes “in terms of the quality of the product that rolls off the line.”
