By Andrew Tangel and Andy Pasztor
Boeing Co. has fired a midlevel executive in charge of pilots
who wrote internal email messages between themselves that have
embarrassed the aerospace company as it struggles to get the 737
MAX jetliner flying again, according to people familiar with the
matter.
The ouster of the executive, Keith Cooper, follows the
disclosures of the messages between two Boeing pilots that prompted
concerns among federal lawmakers and regulators that some of the
company's employees took a cavalier attitude toward safety and
honest communication with airline customers.
The messages also involved other Boeing employees.
Mr. Cooper was a vice president for training and professional
services in Boeing's global-services division, the people familiar
with the matter said. His departure hasn't been previously
reported.
Mr. Cooper couldn't be reached for comment. Mr. Cooper departed
the company within the past couple of months, one of these people
said.
Mr. Cooper didn't send or receive the messages, the latest batch
of which Boeing disclosed to lawmakers and the news media in
January, this person said. Those messages show Boeing employees
mocking airline officials, aviation regulators and even their own
colleagues. In one, an employee said the 737 MAX had been "designed
by clowns, who in turn are supervised by monkeys."
Boeing Chief Executive David Calhoun, who has called the
messages "totally appalling," has said he aimed to stamp out such
behavior and hold managers accountable. "Awareness in the
leadership ranks around whether that's happening or not is not an
excuse if it's happening," Mr. Calhoun said in a call with
reporters in January, shortly after taking over as CEO.
"Disciplinary actions have to be taken."
Boeing leaders have faced questions from federal lawmakers about
who has been held accountable for the MAX crisis. The aircraft has
been grounded since last March, after two fatal crashes that
claimed 346 lives.
Boeing previously reassigned a company pilot, Patrik Gustavsson,
from an important 737 MAX role after congressional investigators in
October disclosed messages in which his then-colleague suggested
having misled regulators.
In a 2016 instant-message exchange, Mr. Gustavsson and Mark
Forkner, who was then the MAX's chief technical pilot, appeared to
discuss modifications to a MAX flight-control system that was later
implicated in both fatal crashes, comparing notes on
flight-simulator problems. At one point Mr. Forkner said: "So I
basically lied to the regulators (unknowingly)."
In his role as chief technical pilot, Mr. Gustavsson had been
responsible for working with airlines and regulators on crew
training and pilot manuals for the aircraft. He still works at
Boeing, now as a production pilot whose responsibilities include
working with finished airplanes, people familiar with the matter
said. Boeing declined to make him available for comment.
Mr. Forkner's attorney has said his client was referring to
problems with the simulator, not the flight-control system itself.
Mr. Forkner left Boeing to work at Southwest Airlines Co., a major
MAX customer. Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said in October Mr.
Forkner's messages weren't related to his current job and that the
pilot was by all accounts a "very fine man and does a fine job for
us."
The cadre of technical pilots Mr. Cooper once oversaw is the
same group now poised to work with the Federal Aviation
Administration's pilot-training specialists to develop
ground-simulator training programs before the MAX fleet can return
to service.
Some senior executives have moved on. In October, Boeing ousted
Kevin McAllister, then its commercial-airplane division chief. In
December, the company's board removed Dennis Muilenburg as CEO
after a series of setbacks and overoptimistic assumptions related
to winning regulatory approval.
Others have retired or shifted to other projects at Boeing.
Keith Leverkuhn, who oversaw the 737 MAX's development as the
program's general manager, is now a vice president for propulsion
systems in the company's commercial-airplane division.
Michael Teal, the program's chief engineer during the MAX's
development, is the top engineer for Boeing's newest and most
important current airliner under development, the long-haul 777X,
which took its first flight last month.
Mike Sinnett, a senior engineer who had been Boeing's point
person with regulators, pilot groups and the media on Boeing's
efforts to fix the MAX, is focusing on developing new Boeing
aircraft. He also is a member of a high-level, federally sponsored
advisory committee advising regulators about drone safety.
Boeing estimates regulators will approve the MAX to resume
commercial service by midyear, a step that will allow the company
to start reintroducing the 385 planes parked by airlines
world-wide. Then it will start delivering just over 400 more
completed planes being stored in Washington state and Texas.
The plane maker's overall first-quarter deliveries of other
plane types could also decline because of a slump in demand related
to the coronavirus outbreak, Chief Financial Officer Greg Smith
said at an investor conference Wednesday. Chinese airlines have cut
flying by as much as 70%, aircraft lessor Avolon said this
week.
--Doug Cameron contributed to this article.
Write to Andrew Tangel at Andrew.Tangel@wsj.com and Andy Pasztor
at andy.pasztor@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 12, 2020 19:01 ET (00:01 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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