Tag: The Boeing Company

Cockpit recording from Air India suggests the captain cut fuel to the engines before the crash, source says
A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India flight that crashed last month supports the view that the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane’s engines, said a source briefed on U.S. officials’ early assessment of evidence.
The first officer was at the controls of the Boeing 787 and asked the captain why he moved the fuel switches into a position that starved the engines of fuel and requested that he restore the fuel flow, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the matter remains under investigation.
The U.S. assessment is not contained in a formal document, said the source, who emphasized the cause of the June 12 crash in Ahmedabad, India, that killed 260 people remains under investigation.
There was no cockpit video recording definitively showing which pilot flipped the switches, but the weight of evidence from the conversation points to the captain, according to the early assessment.
The Wall Street Journal first reported similar information on Wednesday about the world’s deadliest aviation accident in a decade.
A police officer stands in front of the wreckage of an Air India aircraft, bound for London’s Gatwick Airport, which crashed during take-off from an airport in Ahmedabad, India June 12, 2025. (REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo)
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the investigation into the crash, said in a statement on Thursday that “certain sections of the international media are repeatedly attempting to draw conclusions through selective and unverified reporting.” It added the investigation was ongoing and it remained too early to draw definitive conclusions.
Most air crashes are caused by multiple factors, and under international rules, a final report is expected within a year of an accident.
A preliminary report released by the AAIB on Saturday said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and “the other pilot responded that he did not do so.”
Investigators did not identify which remarks were made by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and which by First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3,403 hours, respectively.
The AAIB’s preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from “run” to “cutoff” a second apart just after takeoff, but it did not say how they were moved.
Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines.
The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 650 feet, the jet started to sink.
The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to “run”, and the airplane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said.
But the plane was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters.
The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787.
No safety recommendations
In an internal memo on Monday, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out.
The AAIB’s preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE.
After the report was released, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed and four sources with knowledge of the matter said.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has been assisting with the Air India investigation and its Chair Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board spokesperson said. That includes the cockpit voice recording and details from the flight data recorder that the NTSB team assisted the AAIB in reading out, the spokesperson added.
“The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare events so that industry and regulators can improve aviation safety,” Homendy said in a statement. “And if there are no immediate safety issues discovered, we need to know that as well.”
The circumstantial evidence increasingly indicates that a crew member flipped the engine fuel switches, Nance said, given there was “no other rational explanation” that was consistent with the information released to date.
Nonetheless, investigators “still have to dig into all the factors” and rule out other possible contributing factors which would take time, he said.
The Air India crash has rekindled debate over adding flight deck cameras, known as cockpit image recorders, on airliners.
Nance said investigators likely would have benefited greatly from having video footage of the cockpit during the Air India flight.
July 18, 2025
Boeing to Sidestep Prosecution for 737 Max Crashes Under Justice Department Deal
The justice department has reached a deal with Boeing that will allow the airplane giant to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading US regulators about the 737 Max jetliner before two of the planes crashed and killed 346 people, according to court papers filed on Friday.
Under the “agreement in principle” that still needs to be finalized, Boeing would pay and invest more than $1.1bn, including an additional $445m for the crash victims’ families, the justice department said. In return, the department would dismiss the fraud charge in the criminal case against the aircraft manufacturer.
“Ultimately, in applying the facts, the law, and Department policy, we are confident that this resolution is the most just outcome with practical benefits,” a justice department spokesperson said in a statement.
“Nothing will diminish the victims’ losses, but this resolution holds Boeing financially accountable, provides finality and compensation for the families and makes an impact for the safety of future air travelers.”
Many relatives of the passengers who died in the crashes, which took place off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019, have spent years pushing for a public trial, the prosecution of former company officials, and more severe financial punishment for Boeing.
“Although the DOJ proposed a fine and financial restitution to the victims’ families, the families that I represent contend that it is more important for Boeing to be held accountable to the flying public,” Paul Cassell, an attorney for many of the families in the long-running case, said in a statement earlier this week.
Boeing was accused of misleading the Federal Aviation Administration about aspects of the Max before the agency certified the plane for flight. Boeing did not tell airlines and pilots about a new software system, called MCAS, that could turn the plane’s nose down without input from pilots if a sensor detected that the plane might go into an aerodynamic stall.
The Max planes crashed after a faulty reading from the sensor pushed the nose down and pilots were unable to regain control. After the second crash, Max jets were grounded worldwide until the company redesigned MCAS to make it less powerful and to use signals from two sensors, not just one.
Boeing avoided prosecution in 2021 by reaching a $2.5bn settlement with the justice department that included a previous $243.6m fine.
A year ago, prosecutors said Boeing violated the terms of the 2021 agreement by failing to make promised changes to detect and prevent violations of federal anti-fraud laws. Boeing agreed last July to plead guilty to the felony fraud charge instead of enduring a potentially lengthy public trial.
But in December, US district judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth rejected the plea deal. The judge said the diversity, inclusion and equity (DEI) policies in the government and at Boeing could result in race being a factor in picking a monitor to oversee Boeing’s compliance with the agreement.
May 23, 2025
Boeing’s current plan is to deliver the new Air Force One jets in 2027, which is before Trump could leave office
Long-delayed next Air Force One jets from Boeing might now be delivered by 2027 — in time for President Donald Trump to use them, according to a top Air Force official.
While that’s still years behind the original delivery date of 2022, it’s one to two years earlier than Boeing had most recently predicted.
Trump has expressed anger at the delays, and he reportedly had been looking at buying a different jet to use on an interim basis.
News of the potential 2027 delivery came Wednesday from Darlene Costello, the Air Force’s acting acquisitions chief, who testified before the House Armed Service Committee about recent negotiations between the Air Force and Boeing.
“I would not necessarily guarantee that date, but they are proposing to bring it in ’27, if we can come to agreement on the requirement changes,” Costello said.
She was referring to contract requirements that are being loosened to get to that earlier date – such as the Air Force “relieving” Boeing of some of the top-clearance security requirements for workers performing work on the aircraft, which has been blamed for some of the delays.
Boeing said it had no comment on Costello’s testimony.
Keeping Trump and the Air Force happy is critical for Boeing, which gets 42% of its revenue from US government contracts, according to its most recent filing.
Boeing’s $3.9 billion contract to replace the two Air Force One jets has become an expensive and embarrassing albatross. Boeing has reported losses totaling $2.5 billion already on the program, known as VC-25B, since it agreed to be responsible for what has become soaring cost overruns.
There are multiple reasons for the delay in delivery. After signing the original contract in 2017, Boeing began refurbishing two 747 jets in February 2020 that it had built for another customer but never delivered because of that customer’s bankruptcy — a process that in hindsight probably was more expensive and time consuming than if it had built from scratch.
And the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which started just weeks after Boeing began refurbishing the planes, caused significant additional delays.
Current jets used by six different presidents
The two jets now in use, which have the code letters VC-25A and carry the Air Force One designation when the president is on board, have been in service for nearly 35 years, starting during the term of President George H.W. Bush. Replacing the planes has long been a priority for Trump.
“I’m not happy with the fact that it’s taken so long,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One in February. “There’s no excuse for it.” He said he wouldn’t turn to Boeing’s European rival Airbus, but would consider buying a used 747 and having a different company refurbish it for use as Air Force One.
Soon after those comments Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told investors that he is “all in” on trying to speed up the delivery and praised suggestions made by Elon Musk, who visited the Texas facility where the work is being done in December on Trump’s behalf.
“The president is clearly not happy with the delivery timing,” Ortberg said at that time. “He’s made that well known. Elon Musk is actually helping us a lot in working through the requirements… to try to help us get the things that are non-value-added constraints out of the way, so we can move faster and the president those airplanes.”
Even before Trump took office for the first time in 2017, he complained about the cost of the Boeing contract and threatened to cancel an existing deal. In February 2018 he negotiated the current contract for two of the jets, which saved the Air Force $1.4 billion over the previous deal, the White House said at the time. He had requested that the aircraft be delivered by 2021.
The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the situation, reported last week that the government has commissioned defense contractor L3Harris to overhaul a Boeing 747 formerly used by the Qatari government, with the aim to have it in service by this fall as an Air Force One jet. But that contract has not been announced by the government, and Costello was not asked about it during the hearing.
The challenge is not the basic jet, but what it takes to turn a run-of-the-mill Boeing 747 into the flying communications and command post fit for the president of the United States, said Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, an aerospace consulting firm. They are supposed to be able to fly and protect its occupants from missile attack or even the shock waves of a nuclear blast.
“You can have a jet anytime,” he said. “But it takes a great deal of work to have encrypted communications and manage the military and federal government from anywhere around the world in any circumstance.”
May 11, 2025
Tariffs disrupt Boeing’s supply chain, jeopardizing U.S. jobs and exports
Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner jet is a multinational concoction, made of parts from around the globe. Wings from Japan. Doors from France. Portions of the fuselage are built in Italy before they are shipped to the United States to be assembled by workers in South Carolina.
It’s an arrangement made possible by a nearly 50-year-old trade agreement that allowed Boeing and other players in the U.S. aerospace industry to sell airplanes and buy parts from anywhere in the world, duty-free.
Now President Donald Trump’s global tariffs threaten to disrupt this interlocking supply chain. For the first time in nearly half a century, Boeing will pay a levy to import those wings, doors and other components. For now, there is a new 10 percent tax on most imports. But that levy could rise depending on what the president decides during a 90-day reprieve he declared before stiffer tariffs land on most countries.
While Trump has said his sweeping protective tariffs will reduce the U.S. trade deficit, the levies on Boeing’s parts supply line will tax a company that is America’s biggest exporter of goods. About 80 percent of Boeing’s multimillion-dollar planes are shipped to overseas customers.
Trump’s trade war also is causing retaliatory moves that could hurt Boeing. On Wednesday, conflicting news reports suggested China had directed its national carriers to stop ordering or accepting new Boeing planes. Trump then posted on Truth Social that China “just reneged on the big Boeing deal, saying they will ‘not take possession’ of fully committed to aircraft.” Trump did not elaborate on what deal he was referencing, adding to the confusion. Boeing, based in Arlington, Virginia, did not respond to requests for comment.
“These tariffs and trade restrictions have unleashed chaos in the global aerospace and airline industry,” said Ken Quinn, a partner at Clyde & Co and former general counsel at the Federal Aviation Administration. “It’s only harmful and destructive.”
Boeing is not the only aerospace company with international operations coping with the effects. Airbus, the European aerospace manufacturer that has an assembly operation in Alabama, said it is assessing impacts. Other international vendors that make everything from engines to landing gear face disruption.
Experts say it makes little sense to apply tariffs so broadly they burden the biggest U.S. exporters.
“I absolutely agree that there are certain countries, most notably China, that have mistreated the United States when it comes to trade,” said Scott Hamilton, managing director at Leeham Company, an aviation consultancy firm. “But you just don’t go out there with a sledgehammer. You gotta go out with a ball peen hammer to deal with this stuff.”
The 1980 Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft governs how companies do business around the world and is credited with opening markets to U.S. aerospace products, particularly in Europe. Dak Hardwick, vice president of international affairs for the Aerospace Industries Association, an industry trade group, said the trade pact has translated into a more than 2,000 percent increase in U.S. exports over a 40-year period.
The suspension of the agreement has confounded many experts and industry officials. Richard Aboulafia, a managing director at Aerodynamic Advisors, said it makes no sense given the industry enjoys a “monster trade surplus” in the United States.
The American aerospace industry exported $136 billion worth of goods in 2024, helping to lower the overall U.S. trade deficit by 13 percent, according to Morningstar. Aerospace was second only to the oil industry in exports. The administration did not respond to questions about the 1980 trade pact and why it thinks tariffs should be imposed on aerospace companies.
Parts for the 787 come from around the world to Boeing’s factories in Charleston, South Carolina, which employ about 7,800 workers. The largest components, such as wings and fuselage sections, arrive from aboard air freighters dubbed “Dreamlifters” with cavernous cargo bays, which Boeing built especially for the job.
Trump visited the factory in 2017, only a month after he was inaugurated for his first term, to celebrate the plant as an example of American manufacturing while denouncing companies that offshore their work.
“Our goal as a nation must be to rely less on imports and more on products made right here in the U.S.A.,” he told the crowd then. “I don’t want companies leaving our country, making their product, selling it back, no tax, no nothing, firing everybody in our country.”
Trump’s tariffs have set off a private lobbying effort as the aerospace industry seeks to minimize the impact, according to one industry leader who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of negotiations.
“There are war rooms being set up at suppliers across the industry,” said Kevin Michaels, a managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory. He said companies will have to negotiate with their customers who will pay the higher costs.
Boeing imports parts built at its production facility in Sheffield, England, which the company opened in 2018 to manufacture high-tech components for the next generation 737, the 737 Max and 767 aircraft. The company also sources approximately $1.25 billion a year worth of parts from a network of more than 300 suppliers in India, where it directly employs 7,000 people, while an additional 13,000 people work for other partners in its supply chain, according to the company’s website.
Airbus employs more than 5,000 people in the United States. It has 2,000 employees in Mobile, Alabama, alone, where workers assemble the company’s A220 and A320 jets at a 53-acre campus.
The company’s arrival was transformational, said Bradley Byrne, CEO of the Mobile Chamber. Airbus broke ground on the factory in 2013, and workers began assembling A320 jets two years later. (Mobile landed the Airbus assembly plant after losing its bid to be home to Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner campus, which went to Charleston.) It’s helped the community attract more businesses as suppliers seek to be closer to the company that buys their products.
Byrne has been in close contact with the company, most recently receiving assurances that it is moving forward with plans to open a third manufacturing line in Mobile, which would add 1,000 jobs. Still, Byrne can’t help but worry.
“We don’t know, and Airbus doesn’t know, what impact [tariffs] could have on the number of orders that they get,” he said.
For its part, Airbus said it is trying to figure out the effect tariffs will have.
“Like others in the industry, we are actively assessing the impact of these trade policy changes on our operations and supply chain, and are working closely with our customers and suppliers to evaluate how best to navigate these evolving conditions,” the company said in a statement.
A crucial question roiling the industry is who will pick up the tab for U.S. tariffs. In an earnings call this month, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said the carrier will not be responsible for the additional costs on the jets it expects to receive from Airbus this year.
“These times are pretty uncertain, and if you start to put a 20 percent incremental cost on top of an aircraft, it gets very difficult to make that math work,” he said.
Howmet Aerospace, a Pittsburgh-based company that supplies components for jet engines and counts Boeing and Airbus among its customers, has warned that it might halt some shipments because of tariffs, according to Reuters. In a letter sent to customers, the company said it may not be able to honor contract prices.
April 16, 2025