A small committee of members on Boeing’s board of directors will deliver safety recommendations this week to the full panel after a review of the aerospace giant’s plane-building process.
The committee is expected to recommend the Chicago-based company change its organizational structure, including creating new groups that focus on safety, and consider changing the cockpits of future jets to accommodate new pilots who may have had less training, according to reports.
The panel will also recommend engineers at Boeing report any safety concerns to the chief engineer first and then to business unit leaders, which could slow down the development process for planes. The reporting structure is currently flipped, in that engineers today report to business leaders, who must meet production deadlines first, before going to Boeing’s chief engineer.
The recommendations from the committee come in the wake of two fatal crashes of Boeing’s 737 MAX jets in a span of five months. All 346 passengers aboard the planes died in the crashes, and federal and international regulators grounded Boeing’s fleet of 737 MAX aircraft. The planes have yet to return to commercial service as Boeing awaits approval from the Federal Aviation Administration after completing a software patch for the anti-stall system on the 737 MAX, leading U.S.-based airlines that fly the jets to cancel flights into December.
Boeing’s committee didn’t examine the crashes of the 737 MAX jets, but the aerospace company has been examining its internal processes following the incidents.
