Big Boeing Problems

There has been a lot of talk about the Boeing 737 Max 8 recently around the United States. If you do not know what has been going on with these aircraft then I can bring you up to speed. One week ago a Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed in Ethiopia killing all 157 passengers and crew. This had led to many questions regarding the safety of the aircraft so Ethiopian Airlines grounded all 737 Max 8’s. Following the crash, Boeing had extended its condolences and sent out a team to investigate this event and see what had gone wrong. The next day, on March 11^th, stock for Boeing is down 11.5% in premarket trading, the worst it had been since 9/11. On this same day, the Civil Aviation Administration of China ordered all 737 Max 8s to also be grounded. Nine hours later Indonesia airlines grounded their flights. According to The New York Times, Chinese and Indonesian airlines are two of the biggest users of the 737 Max. On March 12^th the E.U Aviation Safety Agency also grounds the jet. The same day Trump speaks with the Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg in which the CEO says that Boeing is going to tweak the software of the 737 Max’s flight control system. This same day Elaine Chao, U.S Secretary of Transportation flies on a 737 Max 8 from Austin, Texas, to Washington DC in defiance of a public outcry to ground the jets. On March 13^th Trump finally decides to ground all Boeing 737 Max jets via executive order, Trump had said that Chao and acting FAA head Daniel Elwell “are all in agreement with the action. Any plane currently in the air will go to its destination and thereafter be grounded until further notice.

These events have turned into a PR nightmare for the Boeing Company. Not only do they have to deal with the problem of recently crashing a plane and killing many people, but they also have to deal with the fact that their planes have been grounded and they could potentially lose billions. With airlines losing trust in the Boeing aircraft they could start losing their business to other manufacturers like Airbus and Lockheed Martin. Boeing will have to soon come to the conclusion of either spending money to fix the technical problems of the aircraft has and trying to prove once again that the aircraft can be trusted, or completely scratching their 737 Max 8s in order to show that their other aircraft are the safest and can be trusted. Boeing is going to have to come up with a big response to these problems that have occurred in order to bounce back, what would you do in order to solve this PR nightmare if you were on the Boeing team?