Boeing Commercial Airplane Division Head Resigns Amid 737 MAX Crisis

The resignation comes in the wake of two Boeing 737 Max crashes within the past 12 months, which killed 346 people.
Sputnik

In a statement published Tuesday on the company's website, Boeing announced that it had appointed Stan Deal as the successor to Kevin McAllister as president and CEO of Boeing's Commercial Airplanes division.

Stan Deal was the president of the company's Global Services division; Ted Colbert, Boeing's Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Information Technology & Data Analytics, will take Deal's position.

"Our entire Boeing team is focused on operational excellence, aligned with our values of safety, quality and integrity, and we're committed to delivering on our commitments and regaining trust with our regulators, customers and other stakeholders," Boeing President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg said, according to the statement. "Stan brings extensive operational experience at Commercial Airplanes and trusted relationships with our airline customers and industry partners; and Ted brings to our Global Services business an enterprise approach to customers and strong digital business expertise—a key component of our long-term growth plans."

The Boeing CEO thanked McAllister for his "dedicated and tireless service to Boeing, its customers and its communities" during what he referred to as a "challenging time."

The staff changes are effective immediately, according to the statement.

Two Boeing 737 MAX aircraft - Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 - crashed in October 2018 and March 2019, respectively, killing 346 people. The tragedies led to the grounding of every 737 MAX airframe around the world. An investigation revealed that the planes crashed due to a flaw in the onboard flight software, which prevented pilots from identifying errors in flight.

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