'If anything happens to me, it's not suicide,' dead Boeing whistleblower to friend.

[UpInArms]

49. Not ceo ... but Patrick Shanahan

Patrick Shanahan spent 31 years rising through the ranks at Boeing, rescuing some of the company’s most troubled programs. His stormy six months as Donald Trump’s acting Defense secretary included an ethics probe into allegations of favoritism toward the aerospace giant — and at least one instance of the president referring to him as “the Boeing guy.”

Now Shanahan is firmly in the center of yet another Boeing maelstrom: the mid-air door blowout that left a gaping hole in a nearly brand new Alaska Airlines jet.

Shanahan is president and CEO of Spirit AeroSystems, the contractor that manufactures the 737 MAX 9’s fuselage, including the faulty door panel that flew out during that accident. The Jan. 5 incident near Portland, Oregon, was just the latest in a series of accusations of shoddy work by Spirit Aero, including poor fittings and misdrilled holes. (Spirit AeroSystems, a spinoff of Boeing, has no connection with Spirit Airlines.)

Shanahan was installed at Spirit Aero with the explicit mission of fixing its quality problems after its previous chief executive resigned, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. The newspaper noted that Spirit Aero’s quality problems had slowed production at Boeing and forced the plane-maker to miss its production targets.

For Shanahan, who acquired the nickname Mr. Fix-It during his time at Boeing, stepping in to solve another mess was a calling, Spirit Aero spokesperson Joe Buccino said. (Shanahan was not made available for this story.)

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https://news.yahoo.com/why-trump-pentagon-chief-embroiled-120000666.html