SEATTLE — Boeing's new CEO, Dave Calhoun, spoke exclusively to KING 5 Wednesday just as the company faces new problems.
Boeing said Tuesday that it found debris contaminating the fuel tanks of some 737 MAX jets that it built in the past year but was unable to deliver to airline customers.
A Boeing official said the debris was discovered in “several” planes but did not give a precise number. Boeing built about 400 undelivered MAX jets before it temporarily halted production last month.
Calhoun told KING 5 the debris problem comes down to having better production discipline.
"It's basic discipline, It's nothing more, nothing less than production discipline. It's every employee, every associate looking after their work, their area every moment in time, to make sure that FOD [foreign object debris], never arises again," explained Calhoun.
Calhoun also talked on Wednesday about the decision by Washington state lawmakers, at The Boeing Company's request, to introduce bills to suspend the aerospace giant's preferential business and occupation tax rate until the United States and European Union resolve their long-running international trade dispute.
"I am not very interested on the next airplane decision in tax incentives having anything to do with what we do or where we do it," Calhoun said. "I don't think that is a subsidy we can keep over any long period of time, and honestly it never adds up to enough to matter, so for me, that is definitely not a priority with respect to those kinds of decisions."
Democratic Sen. Marko Liias and Democratic House Majority Leader Rep. Pat Sullivan are the sponsors of the companion bills in the Senate and House. The legislation will suspend the 40 percent tax break that the Legislature adopted for the aerospace industry in 2003 and was expanded in 2013.
Moving forward, Calhoun said regaining the public's trust is a top priority for the company.
"Transparency is something we lost for a moment, and it's something we have to regain because it speaks to the trust the world has in us," Calhoun said. "People are just going to have to get comfortable, that we're going to share any and all issues that arise, in the course of designing and producing airplanes so when things do go a little wrong, we can get ahead of it, get in the open air with all of our employees and with the public."
Calhoun took his first flight on the MAX this week out of Boeing's test field.