Boeing's Failure- From Sky to Space

Founded by William Boeing in 1916, the label stands as the pioneer in aeronautical advancement and research. As of today, its asset value approximately $137 Billion, employs over 172,000 human resource and has been placed at 54th slot in Forbes listing (2020). However this exceptional portfolio is decaying, rather eroding at a pace which has surpassed any other corporate fall in equal history.

The blow from 737 Max is not negligence but criminal. Dubbed as an aviation idiom in 70's "If its not Boeing, I am not going", the way Boeing played with the lives of hundreds through deceit which ended in fatal crashes in Ethopia and Indonesia, and a near miss to Alaskan Airline in 2024 has buried its credibility to ashes.

The subsequent investigation reflected unimaginable acts of greed from its executives, who had breached every ethical and responsible business boundary to satisfy profit targets and market hold.

Furthering its already tainted repute was the "less explained" death of its whistle blower John Barnett this year through a self inflicted wound, while he was pressing hard to reveal the crimes by Boeing especially in the context of air crashes, having been employed with aircraft manufacturer since 30 years.

From sky we transit to space where two astronauts, US-Indian origin Sunita Williams and Barry Butch have been left stranded on International Space Station (ISS) for almost 8 months, from their original 1 week travel on a Boeing space craft "Starliner" or CST-100 as it is labelled. As "privileged" contractor, NASA in 2014 awarded a contract valuing some $4.2 billion under Commercial Crew Program (CCP), while the same for Elon Musk's Space-X valuing $2.6 billion has proved its worth and utility since years.

The crewed flight scheduled for 2017 finally managed to lift off in June 2024, after numerous technical failures ranging from helium leaks to thrusters malfunction. Lives hardly account for Boeings revived business strategy, and it lived to its expectation when the thrusters again malfunctioned while docking with ISS in space, merely enabling the two astronauts to hop onto the space station.

Since June, NASA and Boeing technical teams tried and failed comprehensively to rectify the issue, however it has now been finally decided that the crew of 2 will return in 2025, aboard a Space-X craft. Deemed to risky, the Starliner will return to Earth unmanned.

Boeing has comprehensively qualified itself as a case study for corporate ambitions going wrong, and taking with them invaluable lives and future of its dependents for good. The road to recovery is unimaginable or rather unthinkable, as risking lives both in sky or in space aboard a Boeing is too daring from now onward.

Transparency, ethical consideration and respect for human lives is all Boeing long forgot, and it is high time that the tide fully turns against it.