Boeing Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

A Journey Delayed — Sea-Tac airport flights delayed, canceled after 737 MAX 9 grounding

By Lauren Gallup January 10, 2024

Passengers move through lines to check baggage for upcoming Alaska Airlines' flights, while others wait, some for flights delayed, on Tuesday, Jan. 9. (CREDIT: Lauren Gallup / NWPB)

The ticketing counter, bag drop, and agent stations for Alaska Airlines at Sea-Tac International Airport were busy but not crowded late Tuesday morning. Some passengers moved through the lines and onto security, others stood against the wall opposite Alaska's blue and green signs, with their bags sitting closely next to them, scrolling through phones, waiting for a Read More

Stockpile of Boeing 737 MAX jets assures Moses Lake years of work

By Tom Banse March 10, 2023

Boeing continues to store large numbers of undelivered 737 MAX jets at Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake.

Moses Lake, Washington, doesn't have commercial airline service, but the casual visitor to Grant County International Airport might assume otherwise. Shiny Boeing 737 MAX jets are parked wingtip to wingtip in row after row on two sides of the expansive airfield. They sport colorful liveries from a wide variety of exotic carriers such as Xiamen Air, Ukraine International, Read More

Before enormous, emotional crowd, Boeing delivers final 747

By Tom Banse February 1, 2023

The factory doors opened to display the last 747 to thousands of guests who had gathered for the celebration on Tuesday, January 31, 2023, at Boeing’s factory in Everett.

Thousands of former and current Boeing workers joined customers and other guests to bid farewell to the company's final 747 jumbo jet.Read More

FAA OKs Fix For Electrical Issue That Grounded Some Boeing 737 Max Jets

By NPR News May 13, 2021

A Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplane sits on the assembly line at Boeing's 737 assembly facility in 2019. CREDIT: Ted S. Warren/AP

Boeing says it has received Federal Aviation Administration approval for a fix to about 100 of the company's 737 Max jets that were grounded last month due to an electrical issue.Read More

Boeing Warns Of Possible Electrical Issue, And Airlines Ground Some 737 Max Planes

By NPR News April 9, 2021

A new possible problem with Boeing's 737 Max airplanes has several airlines once again pulling dozens of the troubled jets out of service. Boeing said in a statement that it has "recommended to 16 customers that they address a potential electrical issue in a specific group of 737 MAX airplanes prior to further operations."Read More

Watchdog Faults FAA For ‘Significant Misunderstanding’ Of Flight System

By NPR News February 25, 2021

The Federal Aviation Administration must fix oversight weaknesses found following the Boeing 737 Max crashes, according to a new report from the Transportation Department's inspector general. CREDIT: Valery Hache/AFP via Getty Images

An inspector general's report from the Department of Transportation said U.S. aviation regulators do not understand the plane's flight control software that caused two devastating crashes in 2018 and 2019.Read More

United Grounds Some Boeing 777 Jets After Engine Failure

By NPR News February 22, 2021

Pieces of an engine from United Airlines Flight 328 sit scattered in a neighborhood after the jet's engine failure on Saturday after takeoff from Denver. CREDIT: Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

Boeing recommended that the airplanes remain out of the sky until the Federal Aviation Administration "identifies the appropriate inspection protocol." There are 69 such planes currently in service and 59 others in storage, the company said in a statement.Read More

Pandemic Piles On Already Reeling Boeing, Leading To Nearly $12 Billion Loss In 2020

By NPR News January 27, 2021

Boeing 777-X jet takes off in Seattle with Olympia Mountains in the background

Boeing is trying to close the books on a dismal year. The aircraft manufacturer Wednesday reported that the company lost close to $12 billion in 2020, a record loss, as the pandemic depressed demand for new airplanes and the company continued to reel from its 737 Max debacle.Read More

Boeing 737 Max Completes First U.S. Commercial Flight Since It Was Grounded

By NPR News December 29, 2020

Boeing 737 Max - American Airlines jet takes off in Miami

A Boeing 737 Max carried paying passengers on a U.S. flight Tuesday for the first time since March of 2019, as American Airlines put the aircraft back in service. The planes had been grounded worldwide after two deadly crashes highlighted safety problems.Read More

Senate Report Faults FAA And Boeing For Failures In Review Of 737 Max

By NPR News December 19, 2020

Boeing will be laying off thousands of additional employees as the airplane manufacturer continues to lose money due to the coronavirus pandemic. CREDIT: Elaine Thompson/AP

Senate investigators have heaped criticism on both Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration, finding a series of failures and improprieties during the review process that put the troubled Boeing 737 Max jetliner in the sky.Read More

Boeing Lands 1st 737 Max Order Since Troubled Plane Was Cleared To Fly Again

By NPR News December 3, 2020

European airline Ryanair is ordering 75 Boeing 737 Max airplanes, the two companies announced Thursday. CREDIT: Boeing

Just two weeks ago, U.S. regulators cleared Boeing's 737 Max to fly following the deadly crashes of two of the planes in 2018 and 2019. Now Boeing is reporting an order for 75 of the aircraft.Read More

Boeing To Lay Off Thousands More Workers, Citing ‘Devastating’ Pandemic Impact,

By NPR News October 28, 2020

Boeing started the year with about 160,000 employees around the world, but in the memo to employees, Calhoun said "we anticipate a workforce of about 130,000 employees by the end of 2021."Read More

Washington Officials, Employees Respond To Report Boeing Will Move 787 Production To SC

By NWPB News September 30, 2020

Boeing 787 Dreamliners go through preparations for customer approval at the company's facility in North Charleston, S.C., in 2017. A Wall Street Journal report says the company plans to consolidate Dreamliner assembly in South Carolina.

Boeing is expected to announce this week that it will consolidate 787 Dreamliner assembly in South Carolina, according to the Wall Street Journal. The move would be a major blow to the company's Everett workforce.Read More

Boeing Cuts More Than 12,000 Jobs Due To Drop In Air Travel

By NPR News May 27, 2020

A line of Boeing 737 MAX jets sit parked on the airfield adjacent to a Boeing production plant last month in Renton, Wash. Boeing now says it is cutting thousands of jobs

The number of people traveling by air has plummeted more than 90% since the beginning of March. More than half of the employees losing their jobs are being laid off involuntarily.Read More

Boeing And Airbus Halt Production Temporarily, Continuing Global Change In Operations

By NPR News April 6, 2020

Employees work on Airbus SE A321 fuselages at the company's final assembly line facility in Mobile, Ala. in 2017. CREDIT: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Airbus and Boeing halt production of its jets because of the coronavirus. Orders for new planes have fallen as air travel has plummeted due to the pandemic.Read More

Boeing Asked Washington State Lawmakers To Raise Its Taxes. They Did.

By Tom Banse March 12, 2020

Boeing wants to give up a sizeable state tax break to defuse a trade dispute with the European Union and WTO. CREDIT: Boeing Company

Washington state is on the verge of ending a large tax break for the Boeing Company and its parts suppliers. This is happening at Boeing's bidding to head off a bigger hit from threatened European tariffs.Read More

The Curious Case Of A Big Company (Boeing) That Wants To Give Up A Tax Break

By Tom Banse February 25, 2020

The Boeing Company is bringing an unusual request to state lawmakers in Olympia: please take away our airplane manufacturing tax break. The Washington Legislature seems likely to oblige, but possibly will add some strings to the deal.Read More

Washington Lawmaker Wants To End ‘Better-Than-Boeing’ Tax Break For Prescription Drug Warehouses

By Austin Jenkins February 11, 2020

File photo. Distributors of opioids and other prescription drugs in Washington kept their better-than-Boeing tax break this year, despite a lawsuit against the industry's three largest players. CREDIT: Kevin Mooney/N3

Democratic state Rep. Lauren Davis says Washington’s current approach to helping people with substance use disorders is like a stool that’s missing two legs. While Medicaid pays for treatment, it doesn’t fund pre-treatment services which Davis calls the first leg of the stool.Read More

Boeing Employees Mocked FAA In Internal Messages Before 737 Max Disasters

By NPR News January 9, 2020

A Boeing worker walks near a 737 MAX jet on Monday in Renton, Wash. Boeing said it will suspend production of the troubled jetliner in January. Elaine Thompson/AP

The latest documents Boeing has released related to the design and certification of the 737 Max paint a dark picture of employee reactions to problems that came up during the development of the now-grounded airliners.Read More

At Least 12 British Columbia Residents Among Victims Of Boeing 737 Plane Crash In Iran

By Tom Banse January 8, 2020

Colleagues of the flight crew members of the Ukrainian 737-800 plane that crashed on the outskirts of Tehran, light candles at a memorial inside Borispil International Airport near Kyiv. CREDIT: Efrem Lukatsky/AP

The crash of a Boeing 737 airliner shortly after takeoff from the Iranian capital hit home in the Pacific Northwest Wednesday. The crash victims include immigrant families just across the U.S. border in British Columbia.Read More

Moses Lake Airport Close To Maxing Out On Boeing 737 Storage As Planes Stay Grounded

By Tom Banse January 7, 2020

Grounded Gol Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max aircraft at Boeing facilities in Moses Lake, Wash. CREDIT: Lindsey Wasson/Reuters

Boeing is close to maxing out the storage space it has leased at the Moses Lake, Washington, airport for its grounded 737 Max airliners. The plane maker plans to deploy a fresh wave of mechanics across the mountains to maintain the large fleet until those planes can fly again.Read More

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg Is Out Amid Fallout Over 737 Max

By NPR News December 23, 2019

Boeing announced Dennis Muilenburg is out as CEO.

Boeing statement: "The Board of Directors decided that a change in leadership was necessary to restore confidence in the Company." More than 300 people have died in Boeing 737 Max plane crashes. Read More

Boeing To Suspend Production Of Grounded 737 Max Jetliners, No Layoffs Expected

By NPR News December 16, 2019

Boeing will suspend production of its troubled 737 Max jetliner in January, but does not plan to lay off or furlough the workers who build the plane, the company said in a statement Monday.Read More

Boeing CEO To Families Of 737 Max Crash Victims: ‘We Are Sorry, Deeply And Truly’

By NPR News October 30, 2019

Boeing President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg appeared before the Senate Transportation Committee on future of the grounded 737 Max on Tuesday. Andrew Harnik/AP

Dennis Muilenburg was grilled about whether Boeing had a cozy relationship with the FAA and if the airline tried to conceal information about flaws in its onboard flight-control system, called MCAS.Read More

Secret Air Force Space Plane Lands After More Than 2 Years In Orbit

By NPR News October 28, 2019

The U.S. Air Force's X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Mission 5 is seen after landing at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida on Sunday. CREDIT: U.S. Air Force via Reuters

The X-37B, launched in September 2017, has returned to Earth. It was the fifth acknowledged mission for the vehicle since 2010, but details of its mission are being kept under wraps.Read More

Boeing Pilots Detected 737 Max Flight Control Glitch Two Years Before Deadly Crash

By NPR News October 18, 2019

All Boeing 737 Max aircraft are grounded while the manufacturer fixes a deadly defect in their flight control system. These Southwest Airlines planes were parked in Victorville, Calif., in March. Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

One pilot messaged that the problem was "egregious" and he had "basically lied to the regulators (unknowingly)" when he had told the FAA that the flight control system was safe.Read More

Experts Criticize Boeing And FAA For 737 Max Design, As Grounded Jets Stack Up In Moses Lake

By NPR News October 13, 2019

Two of the planes crashed, killing hundreds. The review panel finds that Boeing withheld critical details about a flawed new automated system, and the regulators lacked expertise to find the problem.Read More

‘It’s Cool And It’s Real’: More Than 100 Successful Test Flights Of Robo Air Taxi Over Eastern Oregon

By Tom Banse October 8, 2019

Vahana Project head of flight test Matt Deal. CREDIT: TOM BANSE/N3

Airbus, along with its rival Boeing and many others, is striving to make flying cars an option for your urban commute. The enthusiasm around the test flight hangar in Pendleton, Oregon, has to be leavened, though. Industry insiders said the technology is running years ahead of regulators and public acceptance.Read More

Boeing May Temporarily Halt 737 Max Production In Wake Of Fleet’s Grounding

By NWPB News July 24, 2019

Boeing 737 Max jets are now being flown to the spacious airport in Moses Lake, Washington, for storage. PAUL WEATHERMAN / BOEING

Boeing's CEO says the company will consider temporarily shutting down production of the 737 Max if the plane's return is significantly delayed beyond the company's October forecast.Read More

Undeliverable Boeing 737 Max Planes Now Being Stored At Central Washington Airport

By Tom Banse June 17, 2019

Boeing is running out of space to park grounded 737 Max jets in the Puget Sound region and is now sending some of its Renton, Washington, factory output to Moses Lake's spacious airport.Read More

Raytheon, United Technologies Merger Will Create A New Aerospace Giant

By NPR News June 10, 2019

Raytheon and United Technologies are combining in what they describe as a merger of equals. CREDIT: JIM WATSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The Raytheon Co. and United Technologies Corp. are merging in an all-stock deal that the two companies say is a merger of equals. The new company's name will be Raytheon Technologies Corp. — and it's expected to have nearly $74 billion in annual sales. Read More

FAA Chief: Pilots Should Have Been Told About Automated System On 737 Max

By Carolyn Adolph May 15, 2019

Boeing said on Sunday that it was aware of problems with a key safety indicator in 2017, but it didn't inform airlines or the FAA until after the Lion Air crash a year later. Here, 737 Max jets built for American Airlines (left) and Air Canada are parked at the airport adjacent to a Boeing production facility in Renton, Wash. CREDIT: ELAINE THOMPSON/AP

A U.S. House committee grilled air regulators about Boeing's 737 Max Wednesday. They asked why pilots were not told about the automated system known as MCAS from the very beginning.Read More

Boeing Knew About 737 Max Sensor Problem Before Plane Crash In Indonesia

By NPR News May 6, 2019

Boeing knew that there was a problem with one of the safety features on its 737 Max planes back in 2017 – well before the Lion Air crash in October 2018 and the Ethiopian Airlines crash in March. But it did not disclose the issue to airlines or safety regulators until after the Lion Air plane crashed off the Indonesian coast, killing all 189 aboard.Read More

Alaska Air Foresees Minimal Impact From Ongoing Grounding Of Boeing 737 MAX

By Tom Banse April 26, 2019

Alaska Airlines has 32 Boeing 737 MAX jets on order. CREDIT: PAUL WEATHERMAN/BOEING

Executives from Seattle-based Alaska Airlines say they foresee minimal impact from the ongoing grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX model. The airline has 32 Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets on order.Read More

Investigation Finds Acting Defense Secretary Shanahan ‘Did Not Promote Boeing’

By NPR News April 25, 2019

Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan was cleared by the Pentagon's Inspector General of allegations of ethics violations. Shanahan is seen here testifying at a House Armed Services Committee hearing last month. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The Pentagon's Inspector General says former Boeing executive Patrick Shanahan 'fully complied' with ethics obligations. This clears the way for his potential nomination as defense secretary.Read More

After Boeing 737 Crashes, New Attention On The Potential Flaws Of Software

By NPR News March 25, 2019

The cockpit of a grounded Lion Air Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft is seen on March 15. CREDIT: Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Investigations into the causes of the two Boeing 737 Max crashes, in Indonesia and Ethiopia, have focused on software — and the possibility that it was autonomously pointing the planes' noses downward, acting without the pilots' consent. It's a nightmare scenario. It's also a reminder that software is everywhere, sometimes doing things we don't expect.Read More