Implicating Communication: An Analysis of the US House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure's Investigative Report of the Boeing 737 MAX Crises

Abstract

The Boeing 737 MAX crisis, which started in 2018 and continued in 2019, has drawn researchers to investigate the events preceding and after the deadly crashes. The two accidents involving Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airways Flight 302 raised safety concerns over one of Boeing's flagship airplanes, the 737 MAX, occasioning a global grounding of the famous airplane. This study delves into the investigative report produced by the US House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure concerning the design, certification, and manufacturing of the 737 MAX. The study utilized qualitative analysis to examine the implicit yet impacting communicative elements embedded in the report. Through the analysis, the study identified patterns of organizational culture, corporate power or hegemony, and capitalism as emerging themes that may have contributed to the catastrophic accidents in 2018 and 2019. Implications for the Trans-MOC model of organizational culture are discussed.