Boeing Executive Says 737 Max Is “Safest Plane”

A Boeing executive attending an airshow in Singapore praised the 737 Max as “the safest airplane,” following months of scrutiny focused on the plane.

Dave Schulte, Boeing’s commercial marketing managing director for the Asia-Pacific region made the comments, according to CNBC, while at the Singapore Airshow.

Schulte also acknowledged that the 737 Max “is by far the most scrutinized airplane in the world, in the history of aviation.”

He then went on to add that the 737 Max is “the safest airplane that can be out here today.”

The comments come after months of negative headlines surrounding the 737 Max following an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 flight losing a door plug while flying.

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 departed from Portland, Oregon on January 5 en route to Ontario, California. Shortly after takeoff however, the pilots of the plane called for an emergency landing after a door panel was ripped off leaving a hole in the side of the plane. The cabin became depressurized as a result of the incident.

There were six crew members onboard and 171 passengers, but no injuries and the plane landed safely.
In the wake of that incident, Alaska Airlines temporarily grounded all of its Boeing 737-9 fleet. Additionally, as a result of the terrifying incident, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded 171 Boeing MAX 9 planes with the same panel, which weighs about 60 pounds and covers an unused exit door.

Boeing later announced that the head of its 737 Max program, Ed Clark, would be leaving the company. Numerous airlines also subsequently announced that they would exploring other options beyond using Boeing’s 737 Max planes.

Amid all of these unsettling developments, travelers began avoiding flights on Boeing 737 Max aircraft. The search engine Kayak reported that it had seen a 15-fold increase in usage for a filter on its site that allows travelers to exclude Boeing Max flights from their search results.

Boeing executive Schulte, meanwhile, told media gathered at the Singapore Airshow that he had flown on a 737 Max aircraft one week earlier and said the plan was “quite full.”

Boeing did not have any of its commercial airplanes on display at the show.

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