Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, has criticized Boeing in the wake of the Alaska Airlines mishap.
The owner of the online social media platform X, formerly Twitter, took the airplane manufacturer to task for what he says is prioritizing inclusion and diversity instead of safety.
Musk referred to a filing from two years ago that appears to show that company management at Boeing used those goals as incentives instead of safety margins.
“Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety? That is actually happening,” Musk said on X.
DEI is a business term that stands for diversity, equity and inclusion.
The comments by Musk came in reaction to an Alaska Airlines flight in which a Boeing-made plane lost its door mid-flight. He also referred to a filing that Boeing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission some two years ago.
The proxy appears to show that Boeing gave its executives incentives for reaching goals surrounding DEI instead of safety.
But the filing indicated that goals were not replaced, but instead were added to.
“While our 2021 design incorporated operational performance in the areas of product safety, employee safety and quality, for 2022 we will add two other focus areas critical to our long-range business plan: climate and diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&l),” the filing said.
Boeing also wrote, however, for the first time in company history, “we tied incentive compensation to inclusion. … Our goal was to achieve diverse interview slates for at least 90% of manager and executive openings,” the report said, adding that the company exceeded the target, “with 92% of interview slates being diverse, resulting in 47% diverse hires.”
Boeing declined to comment; Musk only reiterated his stance in a subsequent post on X.
“People will die due to DEI,” he wrote.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it will investigate Boeing.
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