On Sunday, an engine cover fell off of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-800 and struck a wing flap during takeoff, forcing the plane to return to Denver International Airport. According to The Washington Post, the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident and Southwest Airlines said in a statement that its maintenance teams were “reviewing the aircraft.” This latest incident comes on the heels of several issues with Boeing planes and concerns over Boeing quality control in recent months, which started when door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines plane in January.
If you would like more context on this matter, please consider Jungho Suh, a teaching assistant professor of management at the George Washington University School of Business. His areas of expertise include service management, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I), entrepreneurship, human resource issues in the service industry, sustainability & ESG reporting in the travel industry, digital platforms in tourism & hospitality, and gastronomy tourism. Suh has taught a similar case study in his past classes when the Boeing 737 "Max 8, " a different fleet," was grounded. Suh can discuss the U.S. federal reaction, oversight and response to this string of incidents. He can also speak to the work Boeing will need to do to re-earn the trust of its customers.
If you would like to speak with Professor Suh, please contact GW Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass at cdouglass
gwu [dot] edu (cdouglass[at]gwu[dot]edu).
-GW-
