Boeing is replacing the executive in charge of manufacturing its 737 Max aircraft, weeks after a door panel blew out of one of the planes on an Alaska Airlines flight.
Ed Clark, a vice-president and general manager of the Seattle-area factory where the 737 Max is built, is leaving the company with “my, and our, deepest gratitude” for his contributions to the company over nearly two decades, said Stan Deal, head of Boeing’s commercial plane division, in a memo to employees.
His ousting comes as Boeing encounters intense regulatory scrutiny over the incident in early January, when the door panel fell out of a 737 Max plane above the state of Oregon. A preliminary report by a federal safety regulator found the plane was missing four bolts meant to secure the door panel when it left Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington.