Boeing is replacing the head of its 737 Max program at the company’s Renton, Washington, facility as it deals with the fallout from an incident involving a Max 9 jet that lost a door plug mid-flight earlier this year.
Ed Clark, who has led the Max program since 2021, will be replaced by Katie Ringgold effective immediately, Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) chief Stan Deal told staff in an email Wednesday.
Ringgold currently serves as the vice president of 737 delivery operations. Her replacement hasn’t been announced.
Elizabeth Lund, senior vice president and general manager of Airplane Programs, was appointed to a newly created role that will focus on quality control initiatives.
As the senior vice president for BCA Quality, Lund will “lead our quality control and quality assurance efforts, as well as the quality initiatives we recently announced, within BCA and the supply chain,” Deal said.
These are just some of the leadership changes that Deal made as the company continues to drive “BCA’s enhanced focus on ensuring that every airplane we deliver meets or exceeds all quality and safety requirements,” according to his email.
The move comes more than a month after a Max 9, operated by Alaska Airlines, had a door plug blow out at 16,000 feet after taking off from Portland International Airport in Oregon, resulting in a temporary nationwide grounding of all Max 9s with door plugs.
In a preliminary report, the National Transportation Safety Board discovered four key bolts missing from the door plug that fell off the jet.
After the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded the Max 9 planes, it ramped up oversight of the company and its suppliers, including announcing that Boeing would not be granted any production expansion of the Max for the time being.
Government agencies investigated potential hazards that could affect flights from Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, the two U.S. air carriers that use the 737 Max 9, but those planes have since been cleared for travel again as of Jan. 24.
