Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- Airbus forecasts that almost three times more aircraft needs to be produced by year 2044 June 12, 2025
- Paris Air Show preview: Don’t look for big news June 11, 2025
- P&W: the troubled GTF will be the best engine for the next single-aisle airplane June 11, 2025
- Boeing’s 737 North Line and the Everett factory: in transition now June 9, 2025
- Bjorn’s Corner: Air Transport’s route to 2050. Part 25. June 6, 2025
Boeing’s 2025 annual safety report due this month
By Scott Hamilton
May 20, 2025, © Leeham News: Boeing will release its fourth annual safety report this month. The first was in 2022.
The document is the Chief Aerospace Safety Officer Report (CASO Report). Previous CASO reports outlined programs Boeing adopted since the 2019 737 MAX grounding and safety crises emerged across Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Related Documents
Quality control, safety protocols, intimidation, retribution, and retaliation against line workers were highlighted during the MAX accident investigations and whistleblowing accusations at the Renton, Everett (WA), and Charleston (SC) production plants.
Quality control at Spirit AeroSystems, which builds the 737 fuselage and nose sections of the other 7-Series commercial airliners, also emerged as an issue.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s cooperation with Boeing and transfer of inspection and quality authority also came under scrutiny. The FAA revoked Boeing’s “ticketing authority” to certify 737s and 787s as airworthy before delivery, assuming this role itself. FAA inspectors clamped down on Boeing, reviewing previous work and overseeing production lines.
There is no end in sight for the FAA to relax its grip on Boeing. Boeing must meet six Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) before the FAA is convinced that the company has its house in order, allowing production rates to return to pre-MAX grounding levels and boost production for the 787. These KPIs are:
- Employee proficiency measures share of employees currently staffed who are deemed proficient in core skills.
- Notice of Escape (NoE) rework hours measures time performing rework due to non-conforming work from Fabrication and suppliers.
- Supplier shortages measures shortages per day from Fabrication and suppliers.
- Rework hours per airplane measures time spent performing rework in Final Assembly.
- Travelers at factory rollout measures unfinished jobs traveling from Final Assembly.
- Ticketing performance measures quality escapes per ticketed airplane prior to delivery.
Source: Boeing.
The 2024 CASO Report is expected to update these topics and more.
Progress in safety
Boeing has periodically issued press releases touting progress in improving quality control and safety protocols and enabling employees to speak up about issues safely. However, little in the way of supporting data has been released, and no interviews were granted with the previous safety officer, Mike Delaney. Delaney retired this spring and was succeeded by Don Ruhmann.
One measurement about Boeing’s safety progress may be gleaned independently by tracking safety-related fines leveled by the FAA and the US Department of Justice (DOJ). An independent website, Violationstracker.com, has been tracking fines levied by governments and via lawsuits across many industries and companies. It’s tracked Boeing since 2000. Since then, through 2024, Boeing has been fined nearly $845m for 36 safety violations.
Nearly $700m of these originated with the DOJ for criminal charges related to the January 2024 near-catastrophe when a door plug blew off a new Alaska Airlines 737-9 MAX, traced to sloppy production. There were only minor injuries on the Alaska flight, which made an emergency landing 16 minutes after taking off from Portland (OR). (In December, the judge overseeing the criminal case rejected the plea agreement not on the merits but on DEI grounds and on the court being excluded from the appointment of a special master to oversee Boeing. The Trump Administration is apparently dropping the criminal case but the terms and conditions of a new, non-prosecution agreement haven’t been made public.)
Before 2019, when the FAA clamped down on Boeing, most fines were small. There were some years in which no safety-related fines were levied. Before the MAX crisis began in 2019, the largest fines were in 2015, aggregating to $24m.
Once the crisis began, fines began racking up as the FAA scrutinized Boeing closely. No fines were levied in 2023, and none have been levied so far in 2025.
Click on image to enlarge.
Pennies on the dollar
However, the fines amount to fractions of pennies on the dollar compared with Boeing’s annual revenues. Even the huge DOJ safety fine last year represented a fraction of the annual earnings.
Excluding the DOJ fine, Boeing’s cost per day is inconsequential compared with revenues that ranged from a low of $58bn in 2020 to $78bn in 2023. (Last year’s revenues declined to $66.5bn due to the 53-day strike by its blue-collar union, the IAM 751.)
| Total Fine | Cost per Day | |
| 2019 | 3,900,000 | $ 10,685 |
| 2020 | 26,300,000 | $ 72,055 |
| 2021 | 50,788,778 | $ 139,147 |
| 2022 | 17,000,000 | $ 46,575 |
| 2023 | $ – | |
| 2024 | 698,600,000 | $ 1,913,973 |
SPEEA, Boeing remain at odds
The union representing Boeing engineers and technicians, SPEEA, has been at odds with the company for more than a year. SPEEA proposed a reporting program called ASAP that would initially funnel employee information to a three-member panel consisting of a union member, a company representative, and an FAA official. Boeing insists that it decide what information goes to the full panel; SPEEA objects to this filter.
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- Boeing reports mixed employee survey results; middle management remains obstacle
- Boeing touts safety progress but opposes SPEEA initiative
- SPEEA, Boeing at impasse over safety program
- Boeing’s safety, labor battles heat up
- Strike slows Boeing’s march toward improving safety culture; Airbus’ SMS
SPEEA and Boeing have been at an impasse for a year, and months go by without a meeting. Boeing’s labor relations department—not the Chief Aerospace Safety Officer’s venue—handles the issue for the company.
“Boeing is insisting on putting union containment ahead of any reasonable ASAP program,” says Rich Plunkett, the SPEEA official leading the negotiation with Boeing.
In the past, Boeing declined to comment.
Well, seeing as BA is now trying to avoid a guilty plea in the latest draft non-prosecution agreement with the DOJ — even though it did plead guilty in a previous plea deal — we can surmise that the company (and the new DOJ) pays nothing more than lip service to concepts such as accountability and consistency. The new document also tramples on the Crime Victims Rights Act.
Trial is currently still set for June 23. However, one could imagine how the trial judge is currently being “incentivized” (à la Harvard, for example) to fall in line.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-boeing-near-deal-avoid-144421545.html
https://www.tbsnews.net/worldbiz/usa/boeing-nears-deal-avoid-guilty-plea-prosecution-737-max-crashes-case-sources-1144406
This..
Same old same old at BA.
Indeed.
And there was such excitement in some quarters that Ortberg was going to play a different tune, and walk a new path.
Doesn’t look much like that, does it?
Unless they take CEO of Boeing at the time (Calhoun) to trial and put him in jail, then what is accomplished by prosecution?
I don’t know but I believe people have been compensated.
More fines are not going nor have they ever changed any corporations behavior.
Impact on sales does. The Airlines fully expressed how angry they were and the publicity of it all is what finally got attention.
Having the FAA restrict its build rate and the presence inspections on site as well as having to provide safety figures is what is going to move Boeing.
Ortberg can’t do it alone. He needs the FAA to continue to do its job and I believe that is being done (perfecly? no, nothing is perfect)
I will be ecstatic if Boeing works its way back to a culture that matches Airbus in trying to turn out good (not perfect, never happen) product
???
Calhoun was not the CEO when BA/BCA made terrible decisions that resulted in the two crashes, SMH.
> “Unless they take CEO of Boeing at the time (Calhoun) to trial and put him in jail”
> TD Bank fined $3B US
“…what is accomplished by prosecution?”
Prosecution allows company officers and other persons of interest to be put on a witness stand and questioned under oath before a jury.
That process is preceded by document discovery…which serves to unearth relevant evidence.
The idea is to get at the underlying truth.
The Crime Victims Rights Act gives the victims’ families a say in how this matter is resolved. Understandably, they want a trial rather than a cover-up.
It can be an important court case if the whole true story is exposed with Boeing, FAA and EASA . That can help heavy regulated industry in the future to follow its own and government procedures and not skip some steps to get to market faster.
Per Claes.
Yes I was wrong on the CEO. Calhoun was on the board, Muilenberg was the CEO.
We will never get to the underlying truth. They can’t even sort out who did what with a door blank on an open shop floor with witnesses all over the place.
“the judge overseeing the criminal case rejected the plea agreement not on the merits but on DEI grounds ”
I am missing how DEI got mixed in with this. For others than US, DEI is nothing more than human rights derived from the 60s when the movement of equality for Black People gained their rightful civil rights.
This has been expanded to women and biased treatment (glass ceiling, pay, pregnancy and child impacts on their work) as well as LBGT.
The short version is that everyone should be (we know its not but its definitely just) treated the same. Obviously its an uphill battle but its a legal recognition that the field is not level and there are remedies.
Sadly the current Dictator in Waiting has struck hard at it, not being rich or white you don’t matter (and you need to be the right leaning white).
The original plea deal contained a section that the judge deemed to be vague and unworkable — and the deal was thus rejected. This is standard practice in vetting a contract: if one clause is bad, then the whole contract gets rejected, pending a re-write of the offending clause.
As it happens, the section in question related to DEI issues concerning choice of a monitor — but it could just as easily have related to something else, e.g. applicable law or duration.
This makes sense of what was going on with the Qatar 747-8 (which has been up for sale for some time, 2020)
https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/world/giving-trump-400m-boeing-jet-was-his-team-s-idea-not-qatar-s-report-claims/ar-AA1F7gHc
I can see him hinting at F-35s in exchange for the jet, he could care less about the security aspects or coms etc. Quatari’s are not stupid. They want F-35, but an outright bribe makes congress even worse for any approval.
Same stupid stuff he has done all along, he is incapable of thinking. Pure Chaos under his rug.
Quatar can’t even sell the think so its not $400 million, its pretty much worthless other than parts. Even an interior gutting wold not get to the garbage installed that had to be taken out and then corrected to standards.
Maybe a Cargo conversion!
So is Qatari fairly compensated or not? Who paid/is going to pay? Is there any free lunch in this world?? 😒
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/19/politics/trump-adminstration-approached-qatar-jet
Trans
You are correct A second hand (Qatar junk) used 15 year old 747-8 with low cycles is worth about $30million USD He just wants to paint in his colors and fly around the US with a fighter escort. As it was mentioned in an other article about $25k per hour for fuel burn…not counting the personal cost
What happens to the 747 when its part of Donnie’s library after he passes away?
It has the type of luxurious interior that will appeal to his taste/ego.
https://www.businessinsider.com/qatar-boeing-747-plane-trump-air-force-one-photos-interior-2025-5
There’s no US law that requires the president to fly in a plane with all sorts of security-related “Batman stuff” installed.
It may not be prudent, but that doesn’t mean he won’t do it.
Only Donnie would like an outdated luxurious interior of the 747 Other world leaders are probably snickering at Donnie flying Qatar second hand junk.
Yea he would absolutely fly in a non secure airplane.
I would not call that aircraft junk, it just has little value for anyone. Cost to convert even straight up to something useful is huge.
If Donnie was payi9ng for the fly by hour costs……………………..
Going to be some interesting legal battles as the patch to flying let alone transferring USAF property to an individual.
Cancel a military program and transfer the funds to the debacle in waiting.
What’s the chance the aircraft is “compromised”? Wink wink.
I was able to spot at least 3 big “smart” TVs in the article you posted. Some of these “smart” TVs are notorious for spying on viewers but who cares after Signal chats.
They might as well get it direct, he is going to give them information that is NS anyway.
It matters not big screen, hundreds of systems that can be security issues.
Stupid is as stupid does and the OA has a lock on stupid.
“Boeing increases 737 production pace as quality, safety culture improves”
“SEATTLE (Reuters) -Boeing expects to stabilize 737 MAX production at 38 airplanes a month over the next couple of months, its Commercial Airplanes Vice President of Quality Doug Ackerman told reporters on Tuesday.”
“The company is on track to produce about 38 of the popular single-aisle airplanes this month, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. A Boeing spokesperson declined to comment on the production rate for May.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/boeing-increases-737-production-pace-140221731.html
***
Regardless of what it’s *producing*, it certainly isn’t *delivering* anywhere near 38 frames per month.
May is particularly bad, with only about 10 line deliveries so far. The situation at AB is just as dismal. Any idea as to why May has suddenly shown such a marked deterioration?
OTOH
Wizz took two Airbus aircraft in April, will take seven in May
> Airbus delivered its first Pratt & Whitney powered A321XLR to Wizz Air
There are bright spots here and there, but May is still shaping up to be an absolute disaster in terms of delivery numbers — for both OEMs.
I wonder if Mr. Hamilton has any info/theories as to the cause of this sudden deterioration?
Lack of engines remains a problem for Airbus and Boeing; the anticipated Chinese deliveries didn’t happen; there may (and I am speculating here) have been some disruption in the supply chain as the tariff war kicked in.
Scott:
I think I know what you are saying but to be clear.
Anticipated Deliveries of Boeing Jets to China?
Or engines to COMAC?
Bloomberg:
> The planemaker is *loading* its 737 final assembly lines to build 38 of the narrowbody aircraft a month… said John Plueger, the chief executive officer of Air Lease
> “Make no mistake, Boeing is not completely out of the woods,” Plueger said.
Stonk down 2.24%
So, does that mean that BA is taking 38 MAX shipsets p/m from Spirit, but not managing to turn each of those into a finished frame by the end of month in question?
Well when your stonk is down you really are in trouble!
I am a wait and see what the numbers are at the end of the month.
When the “stonk” goes down, their “nvestors” are in trouble. How many “invest” to lose money?
“European business travel bookings to the U.S. in April dropped 26 percent compared to the same month last year as companies seek markets offering “greater stability,”
The fix! Fatigue.
AW: Boeing will install new 777-9 engine thrust links later this summer as part of a package of design revisions to fix a fatigue problem in the load-transferring components that contributed to a four-month stall in certification tests.
I tried to dig into it but can’t.
Why would you ground for 4 months and then go back to flying with the old ones?
Maybe worked out a deal with the FAA to inspect each flight?
Delta 717 Emergency Landing at Atlanta, Pilots Don Oxygen Masks: NTSB
> The lead flight attendant reported the smoke was so dense that he could not see beyond the first few rows.
https://aviationa2z.com/index.php/2025/05/22/delta-emergency-landing-at-atlanta-pilots-don-oxygen-masks/
Not something you have to worry about on a 787s, no bleed air stuff!
Unfortunately Boeing hasn’t done such updates with their 737 MAX
I believe any bleed air aircraft has that issue.
The systems to alleviate only kick in emergency wise.
I flew some of the MDs back in AK Airlines day (MD80?) that has the oil leaks. You could smell it.
Crew were slowly getting poisoned due to exposure.
‘Lawyer Paul Cassell said in a letter to the Justice Department on Thursday seen by Reuters that allowing Boeing to evade a trial or guilty plea would be a miscarriage of justice.
“In this case any further concessions to Boeing would be utterly inappropriate. This case is the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history, as found by Judge O’Connor,” Cassell wrote, referring to U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor.
Cassell added that the government’s proposal would effectively allow Boeing to become its own probation officer by allowing it to avoid an independent monitor and instead hire its own compliance consultant.’
https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2025-05-22/us-should-take-boeing-to-trial-in-737-max-fraud-case-lawyer-says
“Any agreement would have to be approved by US District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas, who is presiding over the case. Cassell said the family members would formally object to the nonprosecution agreement in court”.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-22/families-of-737-max-crash-victims-urge-us-to-prosecute-boeing
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal specifically instructed O’Connor to uphold the families’ rights under the Crime Victims Rights Act, when considering any deal between BA and the DOJ.
However, one can imagine that he’s being pressured by the current administration to “see the light”…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-22/families-of-737-max-crash-victims-urge-us-to-prosecute-boeing
***
When instated, Ortberg said:
“I will be transparent with you every step of the way…”
So much for that.
> “DOJ must not sign a non-prosecution agreement with Boeing that would allow the company to weasel its way out of accountability for its failed corporate culture, and for any illegal behavior that has resulted in deadly consequences,” wrote Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal.
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2025-05-23/us-senators-urge-doj-not-to-let-boeing-avoid-criminal-prosecution
Ahh, another one of those “sternly worded letters”.
Woo hoo- nothing will come of it, other than the grandstanding for the Senators.
“President Donald Trump on Friday said he is “recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union” after complaining that trade negotiations have stalled.”
I guess Airbus can reschedule deliveries to US carriers to their global competitors!
Tariffs in 9 days!!
Has MOL found the email or phone number of COMAC?
I read that Arnold Toynbee in his “A Study of History”, he writes: “Civilizations are not murdered. Instead, they take their own lives.”
Even before that 50% tariff call, the EU had $108B in reciprocal tariffs ready.
Looks as if Ryanair won’t be taking its new planes any time soon 🙈
***
Meanwhile:
“Chinese Exporters Hunt for Alternatives to ‘Irreplaceable’ U.S. Buyers”
https://www.wsj.com/business/china-companies-us-tariffs-market-reliance-c0bba4b0
“China’s Factories Start to Imagine World Without American Buyers”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-07/china-s-factories-start-to-imagine-world-without-american-buyers
maybe Global Factories Start to Imagine World Without American Buyers
“If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.,” he added.
Later Friday, Trump suggested the tariff would actually affect all cellphone companies that import into the U.S., as soon as next month.”
Better get your new cellphone soon or wait to January 21 2029