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From Der Speigel
Dennis Muilenburg and Donald Trump are said to have a close and trusting relationship. The Boeing CEO has boasted of his close rapport with the 45th president in front of TV cameras. Indeed, the Boeing CEO and the 45th U.S. president -- a known aviation enthusiast who once owned his own airline -- have spoken several times since Trump's election. "He cares about business," Muilenburg has said about Trump. "We sit with him at the table."
But on the morning of Tuesday, March 12, having the president's ear wasn't enough to fend off an order from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ban all Boeing 737 Max 8s from U.S. airspace.
In a phone call with Trump earlier in the week, Muilenburg had tried to convince the president that there was nothing amiss with the plane. The crash in Ethiopia on March 10 was no reason to ground the entire fleet, the Boeing CEO had said.
One hundred fifty seven people were killed when an Ethiopian Airlines plane slammed into a field south of the capital Addis Ababa at a nearly vertical angle, but Muilenburg acted as if his company would be immune to any fallout. He claimed there was no safety problem, and that there were no parallels to the crash involving the same type of plane in Indonesia five months earlier. Boeing tersely responded that there would be a software update -- one that was supposed to make the planes safer. But with 356 people dead, the company's promise to reprogram some code just sounded cynical.
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Boeing's Unsuccessful Attempt to Avert a Crisis
Dennis Muilenburg and Donald Trump are said to have a close and trusting relationship. The Boeing CEO has boasted of his close rapport with the 45th president in front of TV cameras. Indeed, the Boeing CEO and the 45th U.S. president -- a known aviation enthusiast who once owned his own airline -- have spoken several times since Trump's election. "He cares about business," Muilenburg has said about Trump. "We sit with him at the table."
But on the morning of Tuesday, March 12, having the president's ear wasn't enough to fend off an order from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ban all Boeing 737 Max 8s from U.S. airspace.
In a phone call with Trump earlier in the week, Muilenburg had tried to convince the president that there was nothing amiss with the plane. The crash in Ethiopia on March 10 was no reason to ground the entire fleet, the Boeing CEO had said.
One hundred fifty seven people were killed when an Ethiopian Airlines plane slammed into a field south of the capital Addis Ababa at a nearly vertical angle, but Muilenburg acted as if his company would be immune to any fallout. He claimed there was no safety problem, and that there were no parallels to the crash involving the same type of plane in Indonesia five months earlier. Boeing tersely responded that there would be a software update -- one that was supposed to make the planes safer. But with 356 people dead, the company's promise to reprogram some code just sounded cynical.
COMMENT:-
As others see it?