Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg would put his family on a 737 MAX “without any hesitation.”
In a wide-ranging interview with Norah O’Donnell of CBS News, Muilenburg repeatedly apologized to the families of the victims of a pair of 737 MAX crashes. At the same time, he made clear he would not resign and that Boeing was taking the problem seriously and had learned from its mistake. When pushed by O’Donnell over fault, he said, “We examine every dimension of these accidents. Not to try to attribute fault or point fingers, but it’s to understand.”
Here are some snippets from the interview:
Dennis Muilenburg: I do personally apologize to the families. We feel terrible about these accidents, and we apologize for what happened, we are sorry for the loss of lives in both accidents, and that will never change. That will always be with us. I can tell you it affects me directly as a leader of this company, it’s very difficult.
Norah O’Donnell: Did you ever consider resigning?
Muilenburg: No. It’s important that I continue to lead the company and the fact that lives depend on the work we do, whether it’s people flying on our commercial airplanes or military men and women around the world who use our defense products, that is a worthy mission.
…
O’Donnell: [Victims’ families are] pointing the finger at Boeing. How does that affect you?
Muilenburg: Well you know I understand the feelings of all these, the loved ones and families who have been affected and I can’t even claim to begin to comprehend how much it’s impacted them and unfortunately I can’t change what happened. I would if I could. But what I can commit to is our company is going to do everything possible to ensure safety going forward.
…
O’Donnell: The first crash, Flight 610 that crashed into the Java Sea about 12 minutes after takeoff killed 189 people on board. What’s your understanding of what brought that flight down?
Muilenburg: Well first of all, I have to respect the fact that the investigation process is still going on. We know there was inaccurate sensor data that came into the airplane and there appeared to be a maintenance issue with that sensor. We know that the MCAS software was activated multiple times during that flight and in the end that added to the pilot workload.
O’Donnell: It was more than multiple times, it was two dozen times. The pilots were essentially in a tug of war with the plane, for control of the plane. That flight control system that you mentioned, the MCAS overroad the pilots more than two dozen times, and the pilots ultimately lost control and that plane essentially did a death dive into the ocean at 450 miles an hour. Could you imagine how terrifying that was for the people on board because it was jerking up and down.
Muilenburg: We examine every dimension of these accidents. Not to try to attribute fault or point fingers, but it’s to understand… what happened.
…
O’Donnell: But that light was supposed to be active on all 737 Max jets, and it was not. You knew this in 2017 and did not tell the FAA for 13 months. Why?
Muilenburg: The implementation of that software, we did not do it correctly. Our engineers discovered that.
O’Donnell: So you’re fixing that now.
Muilenburg: We are fixing it now, and our communication on that was not what it should have been.
O’Donnell: Does Boeing have a credibility and transparency problem if they don’t admit what were the mistakes in the past?
Muilenburg: No as I said, we clearly fell short and the implementation of this angle-of-attack disagree alert was a mistake, right, we did not implement it properly. We’re confident in the fundamental safety of the airplane.
O’Donnell: You’d put your family on a 737 Max?
Muilenburg: Without any hesitation. Absolutely.
CONCLUSION
I appreciate that O’Donnell asked him some tough questions and follow-ups. There is no surprise, of course, in any of his answers, but Muilenburg’s media apology tour certainly gives ammo to the families suing Boeing…
image: CBS News (Fair Use Exception)
Matthew, what is your legal view of this? Would Boeing’s legal strategy be that they plan to settle claims anyway, therefore these admission don’t add that much fuel to claims?
Or that the admissions he made in this interview would come out eventually in discovery, so this might somewhat help move forward settlement discussions?
Given what appears to be overwhelming evidence, I assume Boeing’s position would be to settle rather than go to trial?
They are certainly in a tough position. I wish them well in working through this. We need them.
These hollow apologies count for very little. Boeing knows that it’s well and truly culpable in these matters and doesn’t have a hope in hell of avoiding astronomical payouts via insurers. This guy can count himself lucky he wasn’t operating in any one of a number of jurisdictions in which criminal charges apply in matters such as these.
The very least he should have done: RESIGN…he presided over the business culture in which the bean counters and the marketing sleazes/ spinmeisters won out over the scientists and engineers ( ie mammon over ethics).
Take your millions in stock bonuses and executive parachute and bugger off.
And Thank God for the New York Times…because without them and a couple of others, we’d still be hearing the denials that there was even a problem, at least until the next crash.
I would absolutely not fly the 737MAX on any airline! Boeing CEO didn’t want to ground them in the US (tried to convince Trump), bc it is money first, after 2 crashes and knowing of the problem, he is a slime! Just recently, Trump suggested that the 737 MAX get renamed? Another slime!!
With these untrustworthy slimes, no, I am not flying on the 737MAX! Although, I may rethink my position if the 737MAX can go 10 years flying without crashing due to design or sw.
Trump needs to approach the Boeing CEO and say ‘Your Fired’!!!
BTW – The Boeing CEO needs to ball up and start flying to his company meetings and personal use on the 737MAX and show to everyone that it is safe. It may takes years to convince the public, but at least he would be putting his money where his mouth is! I will believe it when I see it on a consistent basis.
-Software Engineer
@JB San Diego – You realize that Boeing isn’t part of the federal government & Trump can’t fire him, right?
It’s my understanding – and correct me if I’m wrong – that Boeing made the AoA Disagree Alert an add-on or otherwise pay-for-play option. If that reading is correct, I would’ve loved to see O’Donnell flat out say/ask, “So, you and your company put profits before safety…you knowingly witheld a safety capability in order to make money, an act that (likely?) caused hundreds of people to die. How do you respond to that? That you essentially murdered those people…” Or something equally dramatic and inflammatory but would make Muilenburg incredibly uncomfortable and force him to respond with more nebulous non-answers and hollow apologies.