Aviation expert reacts to Boeing CEO departure later this year

Mike Colombo
·2 min read
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ST. LOUIS – Boeing CEO David Calhoun will step down from the embattled plane maker at the end of the year Amid heavy scrutiny since early January, when a panel blew off a brand-new Alaska Airlines 737 Max.

“All these changes were a matter of when, not if,” Scott Hamilton, managing director of aviation consulting firm Leeham Company, said.

“Really, this goes back to 1996 and the merger with McDonald Douglas and the emphasis on shareholder value that began at that time.”

Hamilton cites Boeing’s focus on increased production rates and allegations from labor unions that the company didn’t properly address safety violations.

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“This has been three decades in getting here. It’s going to take a long time to reverse that impact,” he said.

In addition to the door plug incident, the loss of a tire from a Boeing 777 shortly after takeoff and the discovery of a missing panel on a Boeing 737 after it landed have raised scrutiny of Boeing to its highest level since two Boeing 737 Max jets crashed in 2018 and 2019. The crashes killed 346 people.

“I don’t think there’s a single name within the Boeing company that comes to my mind as rising to the top to replace Calhoun. But having said that, if they choose to go inside, they’re just going inside the people who’re part of the culture that exists today,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton believes the best candidate to replace Calhoun should be from inside the industry but outside Boeing.

“Somebody from a Lockheed Martin or a Nortrup Grumman, to me, would make a lot of sense,” he said. “They would still have aerospace business and understanding.”

While Boeing’s commercial airplane unit has received the majority of the scrutiny, Hamilton believes the impact of the leadership shakeup could eventually be felt in St. Louis.

“The defense unit is not behaving well, either. As I say, lots of delays, lots of write offs. It’s an unhappy company. It’s not just BCA,” he said.

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