Is 737 Max safe after crashes? Boeing faces reckoning in 2020 as new CEO seeks to end crisis

For decades, America's leading aircraft maker was so revered by flyers and employees that it inspired a bumper sticker: "If it's not Boeing, I'm not going."

Now, Boeing's problems with the 737 Max have fanned speculation that travelers may fear flying aboard the jetliner even when regulators lift the order grounding it.

That day is probably months away, and Boeing has stopped building the jet. The aerospace giant remains hobbled by continued revelations, including internal memos exposing a culture focused on evading regulators at the cost of safety and reliability.

Into the crisis steps a new leader: David Calhoun, who started as CEO this week. Boeing's board ousted his predecessor, Dennis Muilenburg, at year's end as the 737 Max debacle spun out of control.

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Calhoun has set his sights firmly on fixing the 737 Max.

"This must be our primary focus," he wrote Monday in an email to employees. "This includes following the lead of our regulators and working with them to ensure they're completely satisfied with the airplane and our work."

The 737 Max is only the start. These days, Boeing, whose storied history includes such famous planes as the B-17 bomber and 747 jumbo jet, seems to suffer only setbacks. Last month, Boeing's Starliner astronaut capsule failed to reach the proper orbit on an unmanned test flight.

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That capped a year of embarrassments, including the Air Force's decision to suspend deliveries of the new KC-46 air tanker after finding manufacturing debris that had been left aboard.

Those issues pale compared with the nightmare that is the 737 Max jetliner, grounded worldwide since March after crashes involving Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines flights.

Boeing kept offering rosy predictions for its imminent return even as airlines kept pushing back the date on their schedules. Tuesday, one of the model's largest operators, American Airlines, said it doesn't expect it back before June.

"It's hard to put a time frame on it," said Jim Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. "If it requires (pilot) retraining or more extensive evaluation around the world, it could be the end of the year."

Others have given up making predictions.

"We put our calendars in the drawer and took our watches off," said Dennis Tajer, spokesman for American Airlines' pilot union.

Last year, customers canceled more orders for Boeing's airplanes than they placed, in part because airlines weren't clamoring to order the grounded 737 Max.

Calhoun urges a fresh start for the company. He wants employees to better listen to customers.

"Every day, we will commit to our shared values while further strengthening our culture," he told employees.

Calhoun is no stranger to Boeing. He has been on Boeing's board for 10 years and served as chairman. He came to Boeing after several stints, including 26 years at General Electric, where he rose to head the aircraft engine unit and become vice chairman.

"He has external experiences to draw upon to bring in some new perspectives," said Jeff Windau, an analyst for brokerage Edward James, "and with GE, he managed through a crisis. One of the key issues, in our opinion, is to improve the relationships with regulators. At this point, we believe Mr. Calhoun has taken the first steps in that direction."

Healing broken relationships won't be easy.

Federal Aviation Administrator Stephen Dickson chided Boeing last month about what the agency said was pressure to approve engineers' changes and lift the grounding order on the 737 Max before a long to-do list is complete.

Boeing isn't doing any better with Congress. Late last week, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released redacted emails detailing messages in which Boeing workers talk about trying to deceive regulators and push through the fatally flawed flight control system that doomed the two 737 Max flights.

"I'll be shocked if the FAA passes this turd," said a missive from one Boeing worker to another. (The FAA did.)

Read more Boeing emails: 'Would you put your family on a Max simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn't'

The company halted 737 Max production this month and is redeploying 3,000 workers to other projects. It was a painful decision: Its order backlog of 4,545 Max jets, in addition to the 387 it has delivered, would have kept production lines humming uninterrupted in the Seattle area, where Boeing has built most of its commercial aircraft over the years. While Boeing works on a solution, finished 737 Max jets are parked all over Boeing facilities in the area.

Ed Pierson, a former senior manager in the 737 factory, said he hopes for a culture shift that will again put the focus on quality. When he was there, he said top executives ignored his warning to them that workers were under so much pressure they could make errors. And in aviation, errors can be deadly.

The Navy veteran said he was "basically pleading with them to take action." He got none. He hopes the company's board will listen to employees.

"I know the quality of the people at Boeing," he said in an interview. "I know virtually everyone I cross paths with wants to do the right thing."

Also signaling a long wait before the Max returns to the skies, Boeing issued a statement last week saying it believes pilots should experience the changes to the Max in a flight simulator before flying it again, rather than just learning about them through a refresher course on a personal computer. There are 34 simulators worldwide for thousands of pilots, so the move could further delay the Max's return to the skies.

Airlines canceled thousands of flights after the plane was pulled for service in March after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet, which followed a Lion Air crash the previous October. The disasters killed 346 aboard both jets.

In both cases, investigators blamed a new system exclusive to the Max, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System.

Boeing marketed the plane to airlines as one that differed little from previous 737 versions. Pilots would be able to learn about its new features on personal computers, saving millions of dollars in simulator training costs for Boeing and the airlines.

The new system proved to be deadly. On the Lion Air and Ethiopian flights, it repeatedly pointed the plane's nose toward the ground as pilots tried to pull it up.

Boeing set out to fix MCAS.

"They had so much hoped it was a simple fix," said Ed Coleman, chairman of the safety science department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.

The FAA insisted on a strategy aimed at making sure the problems never crop up again. The slow-go approach means Max-related loss estimates could far surpass the previously declared $4.9 billion when Boeing reports financial results at the end of the month.

"We'll get it done," Calhoun told workers, "and we'll get it done right."

For Boeing, the burning question is when.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is 737 Max safe? New Boeing CEO hopes to end crisis after plane crash