‘Make A Good Airplane:’ Whitaker Discusses Boeing Future

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker called on Boeing to "make a good airplane" during one of a series of media interviews he gave Tuesday after a tour of a Boeing plant in Washington State. He told NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt the company is too focused on production and not concentrating enough on safety. “There are issues around the safety culture in Boeing. Their priorities have been focused on production and not on safety and quality,” he told NBC. “And so, what we are really focused on now is shifting that focus from production to safety and quality.”

Whitaker said he was surprised that shop floor workers didn't get a "thorough safety briefing" before going on the shop floor and that production dominated discussions between workers. When Holt asked him if Boeing was "too big to fail," he deflected. "I would say they’re too big to not make a good airplane. They have all the resources they need,” Whitaker responded. “There’s no reason they can’t make a good airplane, and that’s our focus right now.”

Whitaker told Reuters earlier that he would be keeping Boeing on a short leash until the safety culture changes. That means he will not allow Boeing to increase production of the 737 MAX 8 and 9 in the meantime. The company is now allowed to build 38 aircraft a month but is not at that rate and is not expected to get there until the second half of the year.