Dave Calhoun, the CEO of embattled aerospace manufacturer Boeing, will step down by the end of the year, the company announced Monday morning.

🚨 What just happened?

The announcement also mentioned that the CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Stan Deal, is retiring and Boeing’s chairman, Larry Kellner, will not be seeking reelection as a board director.

While Boeing has been making headlines a lot recently, the company has faced more than five years of safety challenges with its planes. The issues have resulted in multiple aircraft groundings and more than $31 billion in losses.

The move comes amid a series of recent problems with the company’s airplanes, including a door plug being blown out during a flight, a plane that dropped mid-flight, injuring passengers, and a panel falling off a plane during a flight. The company has come under scrutiny from the Department of Justice and Federal Aviation Administration as a result.

🗓️ Let’s rewind. How did we end up here?

March 2024

• The FBI is investigating the Alaska Airlines flight in January that saw a door plug blow off the plane midflight — and has told passengers they may be “a possible victim of a crime.”

• The FAA’s 737 Max production audit finds multiple instances where Boeing allegedly did not comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.

• In two separate incidents, a Boeing 777-200 loses a wheel during takeoff from San Francisco and a Boeing 737 skids off the runway after landing in Houston.

• The next week, a prominent Boeing whistleblower — former employee John Barnett — dies by suicide while in Charleston, S.C., for a deposition for a lawsuit against Boeing.

• A Boeing 787 Dreamliner nose-dives during a flight from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand, injuring at least 50 people, on the same day a Boeing 777 flight from Sydney is forced to turn around due to a maintenance issue.

• Another Boeing 777 is forced to make an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport after pilots report a flat tire.

• A Boeing 737 that took off from San Francisco later that week is found to be missing a panel during a postflight inspection.

• On Friday, Boeing sues Virgin Galactic, accusing it of stealing trade secrets.

Whistleblowers, nosedives and a DOJ investigation: Read more about Boeing’s March mishaps on Yahoo News

February 2024

January 2024

Read more from BBC News: Passenger describes being on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282

December 2023

August 2023

October 2022

March 2021

November 2020

September 2020

Read more from Reuters: U.S. lawmakers fault FAA, Boeing for deadly 737 Max crashes

January 2020

March 2019

• Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 Max 8, reports a “flight control” problem to the control tower one minute after taking off from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The plane crashes six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board.

• China decides to ground all Boeing 737 Max planes. The FAA follows.

November 2018

October 2018

• Lion Air Flight 610, a Boeing 737 Max aircraft, crashes 13 minutes after takeoff from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Indonesia. All 189 on board are killed.

⚖️ Boeing had problems for years. Why are they being investigated only now?

“We’ve known [about Boeing] for five years,” Mark Pegram, father of one of the Ethiopian Airlines flight victims, told NPR in March. “I think the rest of the world is finally waking up to it, that these weren’t just isolated incidents.”

Boeing has paid billions of dollars in settlements since 2018, and the company and its leaders entered into a deferred prosecution agreement in January 2021 with the Department of Justice that has helped them avoid criminal prosecution so far.

Boeing paid $1.77 billion to compensate airline customers, $243.6 million as a criminal fine and $500 million for a compensation fund for family members of crash victims, CNN reported.

A yearlong FAA-commissioned panel review was critical of the safety culture at Boeing, and found that executives and employees were not aligned with what the safety standards were, according to a report from February. The investigation also found that many employees were afraid of retaliation for speaking up.