The Max, the 4th version of the Boeing 737 since it was first commissioned in 1968, will remain as the symbol of the worst industrial disaster in aeronautical history.
In this affair, which takes a new important step with the green light granted by the American authority to return to commercial service, everything has converged to end in an unprecedented human, industrial and financial disaster.
To measure its magnitude, we have to go back.
At the end of January 2019, nothing bodes well for the violence of the storm that roars in the distance.
Dennis Muilenburg, the group's 10th CEO since its birth in 1916, presented the best results in Boeing history.
In 2018, the manufacturer broke the wall of $ 100 billion in sales.
Its market capitalization - 220 billion - then approaches that of a Gafa.
At 55, Dennis Muilenburg, crowned "man of the year" by Aviation Week magazine, is admired by the aeronautical landerneau.
Entered through the back door as an engineer-in-training at Boeing in 1985, the young native of Iowa, an agricultural state in the Midwest, has achieved a flawless course within the group.
In 2015, he rose to the top position and intends, by transforming this iconic American company, to project Boeing into the future.
China, first country to ban the flight of the Max
No one at the time was talking about Lion Air Flight 610.
On October 28, 2018, thirteen minutes after taking off from Jakarta, an Indonesian company 737 Max crashed in the Java Sea, killing its 189 passengers.
The crash made headlines, then disappeared from radar.
The Max has been in service since May 2017, has apparently not experienced an incident.
The 737 enjoys a solid reputation.
He whispered to himself that the plane is too sophisticated for a company as young as Lion Air and that, in this part of the world, the authorities have little regard for the qualifications of pilots.
Five months later, everything changes.
On March 10, 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crashed six minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa, instantly killing its 157 passengers.
This time it is a company with an excellent reputation that is concerned.
As questions crop up from all sides about the cause of the crash, China takes a dramatic decision: it bans the 737 Max from flying the very next day.
A first when the world of aviation is used to following the decisions of the two major world regulators, the American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and its European counterpart, EASA.
In a few days, the world skies close to the American plane, 387 of which have already been delivered to 48 of the 106 client companies.
Companies which in total ordered 4,405 copies.
From then on, Boeing plunges into a nightmare while the anti-stall system, the MCAS, of the Max is involved in these disasters.
Tongues loosen.
Several pilots, especially Americans, explain having encountered major problems stabilizing the aircraft, which tends to nose down during takeoff.
These “Captains” deplore a lack of training.
Some say they were not aware of this device and the procedures to neutralize it and take back control.
For many observers, the 737 has undergone modernization too.
It is to compensate for the weight of its new engine, the Leap, heavier and more powerful than the previous reactor, the CFM-56, that Boeing has developed the MCAS.
Suspicion of collusion between Boeing and the FAA
The families file a lawsuit, the US Congress and the FBI open an investigation.
Donald Trump, disappointed and very worried, does not take offense at the public humiliation of this icon of American power.
And before the impact of the Max crisis on US GDP, estimated at 0.5% in annualized figures for the 1st quarter of 2020 alone, according to a calculation by the chief economist of Oxford Economics.
Analysts point out that 25% of Boeing's production serves the US market;
75% are exported.
Boeing was forced to reduce production rates of the 737 Max by 20%, then to stop manufacturing at the end of 2019, deliveries having been frozen since mid-March.
The shock wave is spreading among the 900 partners of the program, including a hundred French subcontractors, as well as among the 12,000 employees, who work for the program in the Renton plant, near Seattle.
The revelations follow on the conditions of development and certification of MCAS.
The FAA is also in the crosshairs of investigators.
Boeing and the agency are suspected of collusion, especially since we learn that, by virtue of a delegation mechanism, the American regulator has subcontracted part of its monitoring and testing work with employees of Boeing….
The aircraft manufacturer is called upon to correct the aircraft's problems, in particular by developing a new MCAS and a training package including compulsory piloting sessions on flight simulators.
Production stop
Boeing's back to the wall.
Dennis Muilenburg is quickly overwhelmed.
His hearings before the congressional commission of inquiry are going badly.
His eyes cloudy, he is manhandled and struggles to answer questions in front of the representatives of the devastated families.
Gradually, the image of an arrogant Boeing emerges, which has sacrificed safety and technology to the detriment of commercial success and profits.
An arrogance that goes so far as to mock - many emails exchanged between employees testify - the FAA and its skills.
The fate of the CEO is sealed just before Christmas 2019. He is forced to resign.
He was replaced, on January 13, 2020, by David Calhoun, 62, chairman of the board of directors of Boeing, where he has served since 2009, and veteran of the industry and finance.
Its roadmap has three objectives: restore confidence in Boeing's word, put the 737 Max back into flight and change the culture of this American empire accused of rapacity and sufficiency.
The FAA, whose credibility is tainted, also changed its manager in May 2019. Steve Dickson, ex-pilot of the US Air Force and captain of Delta Airlines, immediately made a commitment when he arrived at the head of the agency: "
I will not give the green light to this plane until I have piloted it myself and that I am convinced that I can make my own family travel there without thinking about it
".
Barely named, he showered Boeing's hopes of seeing the Max return to flight quickly.
Steve Dickson considers the provisional timetable for a return to service at the end of 2019 "
unrealistic
".
For many months, Boeing will focus on responding to all requests from the FAA but also from other regulators - in Europe, Canada, Brazil, China, etc. - who are closely involved in the recertification process of the aircraft. aircraft, MCAS and the training package.
Pilots and airline technicians are also informed and involved.
Boeing listens, adapts and shows humility.
First financial losses in 22 years
In January 2020, it is a Boeing very different from the previous year, which presents its financial results.
The Max crisis is there.
For the first time in twenty-two years, the giant is losing money ($ 636 million net loss), while it had won 10.5 billion a year earlier.
The Max's bill amounts to $ 18 billion, of which $ 5.6 billion is set aside to compensate airlines.
The latter had to deprogram thousands of flights and find alternatives to maintain certain routes.
Between the additional costs, the storage costs of the 450 Max produced and not delivered, the development of the new MCAS and the compensation provided also for families, the 737 Max becomes a hotbed of abysmal losses.
Boeing only escaped the sinking thanks to its defense and space activities, supported by Pentagon and NASA contracts.
“A lot of work awaits us,
then declares David Calhoun, in post for two weeks,
We will be transparent in any action that we take.
It is with humility that we will rebuild our legitimacy and regain the confidence of our shareholders, our employees, our partners, our customers and regulators in the United States and around the world
.
We know that Boeing was very disappointing
.
"
While the Max bill continues to grow - the bank JP Morgan has calculated that, despite the shutdown of production, Boeing continues to"
burn 1 billion cash per month
"-, David Calhoun initiates change by investing safety at the heart of each of the aircraft manufacturer's activities.
He equips the group with a super security gendarme.
He wants to revive the scientific and technical culture of the group which has been damaged.
Double pain with the Max and Covid-19 crisis
It is a weakened Boeing which suffers the surge of the Covid-19 epidemic on the world from last winter.
Despite everything, things are progressing.
At the end of May, Boeing announced the relaunch, at a slow pace, of the production of the Max.
In July, we learned that the group had reached agreements to settle 90% of complaints filed by families in US courts.
In the end, it took the Max 18 months to see a piece of blue sky again after a process of evaluation and ground and flight tests unprecedented in terms of its scale and length.
But it will be several more years before Boeing, whose market value has plummeted by $ 100 billion since March 2019 and whose credibility is still fragile, closes this dark chapter in its history.
