Boeing announced on Thursday to its employees that the head of the 737 Max team, Eric Lindblad, will retire. The company noted that this leadership shuffle is in no way related to the program's crisis.
According to Business Insider, Boeing said in its internal announcement that Lindblad, who has been with the American jet maker for 34 years, already planned his retirement last year. However, Lindblad reportedly chose to stay at the 737 team was in the midst of delivering international orders.
Questions about Lindblad's retirement emerged as Boeing is currently suffering the consequences of two 737 Max crashes in October and March. As of writing, the jets in question remain grounded worldwide.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has yet to officially release a re-certification for the grounded fleets. The recertification was initially forecasted to arrive next month but most industry analysts believe it won't be rolled out until late this year.
Due to Lindblad's retirement, Mark Jenks of the unofficial new mid-market airplane (NMA) program will take over the 737 Max team. Head of Boeing's commercial department, Kevin McAllister, heaped praises on Lindblad's over three decades of work with the company.
McAllister said Lindblad made sure the team focused on the high-quality performance of the jets under his team as well as the safety of the aircraft his program was developing.
It seems that Boeing's mountains keep piling up as it lawyers of families of the victims in the crashes that took a total of 346 lives accused the company of persuading these families to sign a document that will block their hopes of getting compensated.
Lawyers of the victims' families told BBC that around 50 families signed the reported agreements. In the said documents, those who signed will be given compensation of around $92,000 each but they cannot pursue any form of legal action against Boeing and the airliners.
An American attorney who represents some of the families, Sanjiv Singh, stressed that these families were "cheated out of compensation." He added that all of these acts were committed "to the benefit of Boeing."
Singh believes the families may be entitled to around millions in compensation but the U.S. aviation giant has yet to confirm or deny the latest allegations.
When asked by the Panorama program regarding the release and discharge documents, Boeing did not respond to the questions and instead said it will continue to work with organizations involved to help the families overcome their losses.
The latest leadership reshuffle, as well as the new accusations hurled at the Illinois-based aviation company, is expected to take a toll on both sales and stocks. Industry experts said Boeing's problems may keep coming even as it seeks recertification of its troubled 737 Max jets.
