‘Serious Challenge’ Ahead for Boeing, CEO Admits

Charleston, South Carolina. Photo: iStock.com/JHVEPhoto

Boeing faces a "serious challenge" and uncertain outlook as it seeks to restore confidence, its CEO Dave Calhoun admitted, announcing the firm's latest financial results on January 31.

Boeing has taken a pummeling lately, with reports of a nose wheel falling off a Delta Air Lines Boeing 757 passenger plane January 20, a mid-air blow-out of an improperly secured panel on an Alaska Airlines January 5, and public criticisms from executives at United Airlines.

According to BBC News, Calhoun has been trying to show the firm is taking the situation seriously. On a call with financial analysts, he apologized and said the company took responsibility, no matter what the ongoing formal investigation into what caused it concluded.

"We caused the problem, and we understand that," he said. "We simply must do better."

The quarterly update to investors is the company's first since the accident on the Alaska Airlines flight.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has launched an investigation of Boeing's manufacturing process and barred the firm from expanding production of its popular 737 planes.