Emirates Boss Urges Boeing to Review Mistakes

A Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner taxis past the Final Assembly Building at Boeing South Carolina in North Charleston, South Carolina, United States, March 31, 2017. REUTERS/Randall Hill/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Emirates Airline President Tim Clark on Sunday challenged Boeing to review things that had gone wrong, predicting that the fallout from a recent industrial and safety crisis could last as long as five years.

"I think we have a five-year hiatus on our hands," he told reporters in Dubai.

He also expected industry policies around turbulence and seatbelts would become more conservative after one person died and dozens were injured on a Singapore Airlines flight hit by turbulence last month.

Tim Clark told reporters in Dubai that Emirates was using artificial intelligence-based systems in a bid to better predict where turbulence might occur.

This came as US planemaker Boeing is engulfed in a sprawling safety crisis, exacerbated by a January mid-air panel blowout on a near new 737 MAX plane.
CEO Dave Calhoun is due to leave the company by the end of the year as part of a broader management shake-up, but Boeing has not yet named a replacement.
"It is not for me to say who should be running Boeing. But I think an understanding of what went wrong in the past, that's very important," IATA Director General Willie Walsh told Reuters TV at an airlines conference in Dubai, adding that Boeing was taking the right steps.
IATA represents more than 300 airlines or around 80% of global traffic.
"Our industry benefits from learning from mistakes, and sharing that learning with everybody," he said, adding that this process should include "an acknowledgement of what went wrong, looking at best practice, looking at what others do".