Former pilot Duckworth gave Boeing's CEO an earful — and he listened
Source: Crain's Chicago Business
She’s been chair of the Senate’s aviation subcommittee for only a year, but Tammy Duckworth is making her presence felt.
When the Illinois senator and former Army helicopter pilot told Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun he should drop his request for a safety waiver on a new, smaller version of the 737 that’s still awaiting FAA certification, Calhoun took her advice.
The company dropped its request for a waiver related to the 737 Max-7 for a known de-icing issue, even though it’s likely to cost Boeing some money and heartburn with a key customer, Southwest Airlines.
Duckworth no doubt got Calhoun’s attention when she opposed the waiver in a sternly worded letter to the FAA. She continued to make her case to Calhoun when he came to Washington amid the crisis over another version of the 737, the Max-9.
“I was not expecting when I met with Senator Duckworth, the conversation that we had,” the CEO told analysts during Boeing’s conference call Jan. 31 to discuss fourth-quarter earnings. “You know she is a pilot and a decorated pilot. She listened to everything I had to say, we didn't have a debate about the safety of the 7. And the 7 in its certification work was moving along at a pretty steady pace.
“She had a way different argument for me, and it was right. She said, ‘You want to introduce this new airplane, a derivative, yes, but a new airplane. And nine months from now, you'll have an engineered solution to it, to this issue. And why is that the right call?’ ”
The argument resonated, said Calhoun, who is under enormous pressure from both regulators and customers because of problems surrounding the Max-9 after one of those airplanes suffered a fuselage blowout while in flight last month.
“In my view, it was a sound, principled position to take,” he said of Duckworth’s argument. “I went home for the weekend, I talked to our customer, and you know who that is. Unbelievably constructive. And this is the right thing to do for aviation.
“So that is really how it happened, and it was that simple. But the passion and the argument that Senator Duckworth presented to me, I'm so glad I heard. Anyway, that's what happened. The 7 will have to move until we get that engineered fix in place.”
Duckworth was unavailable for an interview.
The 55-year-old former congresswoman who was elected to the Senate in 2016 may be the junior senator from Illinois, but she isn’t taking a back seat.
“She’s not shy about saying what she thinks,” says Sam Whitehorn, a longtime aviation lobbyist and co-founder of Elevate Government Affairs in Washington who acknowledges he’s been on the opposite side of Duckworth on some issues. “It stirs the pot. It’s a good thing.
“It's interesting to watch her. Her background — her ability to say, ‘I’m an aviator; I get this’ — it’s a little bit different. She’s getting to be a force.”
By: John Pletz
Next Article Previous Article
