A pair of deadly crashes involving Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft took center stage at an unmanned aircraft conference in Chicago on Thursday, as CEO Dennis Muilenburg stressed his company’s focus on safety as it develops autonomous aircraft and spacecraft.
The Chicago-based company and its 737 Max have been under scrutiny since the Lion Air crash in Indonesia last fall. The aircraft was grounded worldwide after a second crash, the downing of an Ethiopian Airlines Max in March.
In both instances, a flight control system was triggered by faulty readings from a sensor. The company has been working on a software update and providing additional training for such situations.
Relatives of some of the passengers killed in the crashes have filed suits against Boeing. In court filings, the company has indicated that it may seek to have suits filed on behalf of victims of the October crash moved to a court in Indonesia, where the plane went down.
Meanwhile, Muilenburg has been defending his company’s safety record. Monday, he reassured shareholders at Boeing’s annual meeting.
Safety was again a focus in Muilenburg’s keynote address Thursday at the AUVSI Xponential conference at McCormick Place, which focuses on drones and other unmanned vehicles.
The crashes “weigh heavily” on Boeing and its customers, Muilenburg said almost immediately after taking the stage.
“We’re sorrowful of the lives that were lost,” he said. “But I think it’s also a really important reminder for us about the importance of safety in everything we do.
“Lives depend on the work we do. Our responsibility as a company is to build the safest airplanes in the world, and that’s a responsibility we take seriously, and we own it,” he said. “That has to roll into how we do our work going forward.”
Boeing is developing more than half a dozen vehicles, aircraft and spacecraft, a couple of which are set to take inaugural test flights this year, that do not need pilots on board. Those include a flying taxi and an unmanned underwater vehicle powered by the ocean’s waves. It’s also developing a spacecraft
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that can deliver astronauts or tourists to space.“That’s an exciting future,” Muilenburg said. “But it has to start with this continuous focus on safety.”
One major hurdle Boeing faces with these developing technologies is public adoption, Muilenburg said. People won’t get into a flying taxi with no driver until they think it’s safe.
“Each one of those domains I talked about will only be successful when it’s safe,” he said. “And it needs to be as safe as it is to fly by air today.”
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