The Long-Forgotten Flight That Sent Boeing Off Course
The flight that put the Boeing Company on course for disaster lifted off a few hours after sunrise. It was good flying weathertemperatures in the mid-40s with a slight breeze out of the southeastbut oddly, no one knew where the 737 jetliner was headed. The crew had prepared three flight plans: one to Denver. One to Dallas. And one to Chicago.
In the planes trailing vortices was greater Seattle, where the companys famed engineering culture had taken root; where the bulk of its 40,000-plus engineers lived and worked; indeed, where the jet itself had been assembled. But it was May 2001. And Boeings leaders, CEO Phil Condit and President Harry Stonecipher, had decided it was time to put some distance between themselves and the people actually making the companys planes. How much distance? This flighta PR stunt to end the two-month contest for Boeings new headquarterswould reveal the answer. Once the plane was airborne, Boeing announced it would be landing at Chicagos Midway International Airport.
On the tarmac, Condit stepped out of the jet, made a brief speech, then boarded a helicopter for an aerial tour of Boeings new corporate home: the Morton Salt building, a skyscraper sitting just out of the Loop in downtown Chicago. Boeings top management plus staffroughly 500 people in allwould work here. They could see the boats plying the Chicago River and the trains rumbling over it. Condit, an opera lover, would have an easy walk to the Lyric Opera building. But the nearest Boeing commercial-airplane assembly facility would be 1,700 miles away.
The isolation was deliberate. The present 737 Max disaster can be traced back two decadesto the moment Boeings leadership decided to divorce itself from the firms own culture.
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