How Boeing’s Corporate Culture Started to Rot
Years of mechanical issues have been a long time coming.
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On Jan. 5, the plug door of a Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines blew out mid-flight, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing with a large hole in its fuselage. Miraculously, nobody was hurt or killed, but it could have been a major disaster. And it was the latest in a persistent string of mechanical and engineering setbacks that have plagued Boeing over the last six years. Of course, the company went into crisis mode in late 2018 and early 2019 when two different 737 Max planes crashed, killing a total of 346 people. So what’s wrong with Boeing? It’s a crucial question, since the company is arguably America’s pre-eminent manufacturer and one of the only two dominant global players in commercial jets. On this episode, we speak with Bloomberg investigative reporter Peter Robison, the author of Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing. We discuss the company’s problems, its history and culture, and how it lost its focus on safety and engineering in favor of a focus on pleasing shareholders.