How the largest aerospace company fell from grace

In recent years, the gigantic aerospace company known as Boeing has entered a turbulent era of dwindling profits and rising costs. From airliner crashes, toxic waste, stranded astronauts, and worker’s strikes, where did it all go wrong for Boeing? To understand, we must go back 27 years to when Boeing bought out their largest competitor, McDonnell-Douglas.

In 1916, William Boeing founded the Boeing Company, and over the century, mass-produced large aircrafts for companies and the military, beating all competition. Additionally, they built rockets for NASA. By then, the only company in the same league as Boeing was McDonnell. McDonnell was similar to Boeing, but more military focused. By the 1990s, military spending decreased, resulting in McDonnell’s value tanking. Boeing then bought out McDonnell for $13,300,000,000. However, this merger resulted in much of the cost-cutting culture from McDonnell’s contracts bleeding into Boeing, which had consequences.

This new focus on profit became the company standard, regardless of safety or regulations. Notably in 2006, UCLA released a study showing that the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, owned by Boeing, had been contaminated with toxic waste. Boeing didn’t clean up the site until 2017 when they were made to work with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Boeing attempting to outrun responsibility would eventually catch up with them, the real question was when. Boeing suffers from a revolving door of CEOs, none staying for too long, meaning that nobody had any real experience at the helm. So when two Boeing airliners crashed within a half year of each other,  nobody at the company was prepared. Immediately, all Boeing 737s were grounded and investigated, before they were returned to service. No changes occurred though, and the accidents have continued, with the most recent major accident on Oct. 3rd, 2024. Earlier the same year, Boeing attempted its first manned spaceflight with their Starliner spacecraft. A simple eight-day test mission. However, due to preventable malfunctions, the vehicle became unsafe to use, and the two astronauts were instead left on the International Space Station until SpaceX brings them home in Feb. 2025, eight months after they launched.

Boeing’s comeuppance came down hard. On July 7th, 2024, Boeing pleaded guilty to felony fraud, paying a total of $942,200,000 in fines and costs. The trial encountered one major hurdle, as one of the witnesses committed suicide the day before their testimony. Online, the theory that Boeing assassinated the whistleblower has gained traction, but no legal findings have supported this idea. Next, on Sept. 13th, 2024, a 32,000 worker strike began, grinding any work to a halt. The strikers have not accepted any offers, and if the strike isn’t resolved soon, Boeing’s value may be severely impacted. Most recently, the Senate is pushing the Department of Justice to prosecute Boeing for their disregard for safety protocols and endangering passengers.

Boeing and many of its backers believed the company to be invincible, and that was their undoing. It’s why they thought they could cut corners, they assumed that they were too big to fail. So is there hope for Boeing? Yes. What they need is a complete change in leadership, gutting this mentality of cost above all else. However, it will take new executives who can look past their own greed to see the company’s issues. Then perhaps Boeing can pull out of the dive it finds itself in. Until then, fly safe.