Within a month, multiple Boeing aircraft malfunctioned. On January 23rd, Boeing announced that the Boeing 737 factory team will conduct a "quality shutdown" in Renton, Washington on January 25th. During the meeting, the production, delivery, and support teams will be suspended for one day.
Stan Deal, President and CEO of Boeing Civil Aircraft Group, stated that the meeting had all employees in contact with the aircraft "pause, evaluate what we are doing, how we are doing it, and propose improvement suggestions.". The announcement also stated that in the coming weeks, other factories and manufacturing bases will also carry out "quality shutdowns", including all aircraft projects.
Image from Boeing website
It is worth noting that just this month, multiple Boeing planes malfunctioned.
On January 5th local time, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft urgently returned to Portland International Airport due to an embedded emergency door falling off. Subsequently, Ben Minicucci, CEO of Alaska Airlines, stated in a media interview that a new internal inspection had found "many" aircraft bolts to be loose.
On January 13th, there were obvious cracks on the cockpit glass of a Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by All Nippon Airways in Japan. On the 17th, when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned from Zurich, Switzerland to attend the Wanda Voss Forum, his Boeing 737 plane suffered a "serious failure". According to reports, the failure was related to oxygen leakage. Antony Blinken and his party were forced to get off the plane and replace a small plane. Some of the accompanying personnel had to take commercial flights back to Washington. On the evening of the 18th, a Boeing 747-8 cargo plane of Atlas Airlines returned to Miami International Airport due to engine failure.
At the same time, Boeing has taken frequent actions.
In addition to conducting a "quality shutdown," Boeing also announced on January 16th local time the appointment of retired US Navy Admiral Cochrane Donald as an independent consultant to lead a comprehensive review of the company's commercial aircraft quality management system.
In addition, on January 17th, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States announced that it is investigating Boeing's manufacturing methods and production lines, including those involving subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems, strengthening supervision of Boeing, and studying potential system changes.
It is worth noting that as of the third quarter of 2023, Boeing's total liabilities amounted to $151 billion and total assets amounted to $134.3 billion, making it insolvent.