Former executives back Boeing over 737 MAX

Two high-ranking executives who oversaw Boeing’s development of the 737 MAX said the design process wasn’t flawed

Two high-ranking executives who oversaw Boeing’s development of the 737 MAX told US House of Representatives investigators the company’s design process wasn’t flawed despite two fatal crashes, a contrast to other company leaders’ concessions of past engineering errors.

The Chicago plane maker is approaching the final steps of getting its beleaguered MAX fleet returned to service. Politicians, safety experts and global regulators previously identified technical and management lapses in the aeroplane’s development.

Transcripts of closed-door interviews in May with Keith Leverkuhn and Michael Teal, who directly managed MAX development through the aircraft’s 2017 debut, are part of a final congressional report to be released this week detailing company and government missteps during and after certification of the MAX.

Their stance shows that nearly two years after the first fatal crash, there are differing views inside Boeing and a continuing debate across parts of the industry about the significance of pilot mistakes versus Boeing design flaws as factors in the MAX crashes.

“The cause of the accidents is a very complex thing, that there are multiple things that occurred,” Mr Teal said in his interview.

Misfires of the cockpit system, called MCAS, overpowered pilots on a pair of MAX jets less than five months apart, causing fatal nose­dives and prompting a grounding of the fleet that has remained in effect since March last year.

The statements to US house transportation committee staff, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, reflect vigorous defence of Boeing’s engineering practices and safeguards. In the wake of 346 deaths, billions of dollars in company losses and the biggest blow to Boeing’s reputa­tion in its 104-year history, the executives didn’t concede any procedural mistakes during the plane’s six-year development process.

Mr Leverkuhn, who served as the MAX program manager from 2013 to 2018 before moving to what he said was a higher-salaried role overseeing jet propulsion systems, said in response to a question that he would consider the plane’s development a success, according to the transcript. Like Mr Teal, he said the MAX’s creation followed standard Boeing protocol.

“I do challenge the suggestion that the development was a failure,” Mr Leverkuhn said, during sometimes contentious exchanges with investigators.

Mr Leverkuhn, who stressed the MAX design process was the same as for all other Boeing jets, at another point in the interview said: “I believe the process was correct and appropriate.”

In October last year, then chief executive Dennis Muilenburg said in public testimony he was responsible and accountable for the MAX debacle. The company’s board later pushed him out.