Boeing 737 Max disaster casts long shadow as planemaker tries to rebuild fortunes

As they host the world's media in Seattle, Boeing's leadership team must restore its reputation and its balance sheet amid an uncertain future for the industry

In a vast shed near Seattle, Boeing is ramping up production of its bestselling plane, the 737 Max. Rows of trolleys marked with team names such as Mario Bros" and Wildcat" wait for technicians to complete a daily dance of tools and parts. Getting the choreography right pays: production stoppages at the Renton factory can filter through to US GDP figures.

Never has the value of smooth operation been more apparent to the jetmaker than in the past three years. The factory lines were stopped for more than a year following two fatal crashes of the 737 Max. In 2018 and 2019, a total of 346 people died when hardware malfunctions and badly designed software caused the planes to override pilots and plunge from the sky.