GREAT AVIATION QUOTES
Boeing

There are 53 quotes matching Boeing in the collection:

The 737 Max just felt right in flight, giving us complete confidence that this airplane will meet our customers’ expectations.

Ed Wilson

Boeing Chief Pilot
After flying the first test flight of the Boeing 737 MAX, Boeing Field, 29 January 2016.

so I basically lied to the regulators (unknowingly)

Mark Forkner

Boeing test pilot, November 2016 text message to another Boeing employee used in 2021 legal indictment criminally charging him for hiding Boeing's flawed design of the 737 MAX from regulators.

This airplane is designed by clowns, who in turn are supervised by monkeys.

[Name Redacted]

Boeing company pilot. Internal message to a colleague regards the B737 MAX, 26 April 2017. Part of the document dump sent to the U.S. Congress investigation, October 2019.

You have an aircraft, passengers and crew. You have responsibility for them. You can't take your problems from the ground into the skies. You can completely disengage and concentrate on something else. That, for me, is the most relaxing part of flying.

Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands

King of the Netherlands, and for many years a ‘secret’ part-time pilot for KLM flying the Fokker 70, Boeing 737, and A321. Royal Dutch Airlines indeed. Interview in De Telegraaf newspaper, 17 May 2017. English translation by AP. Original Dutch for not taking problems upstairs with you:

„Problemen neem je niet mee naar boven.”

If back then, we knew everything we know now, we would have made different decisions.

Dennis Muilenburg

CEO of Boeing, in testimony to the U.S. Congress about the B737 MAX, 29 October 2019. He started at Boeing as an intern in 1985. Two months after this quote, in December 2019, he was fired for failing to stabilize the company following the two 737 Max crashes.

I’ve just had a bad experience and I’m thinking of starting an airline called Virgin. Do you have any secondhand 747s for sale?

Richard Branson

Phone call to Boeing, early 1980’s. Branson repeats this as Virgin Atlantic’s origin story, although the reality, with British Atlantic Airways starting up to fly between London and the Falkland Islands, is more complicated. Quoted in CNBC TV story 29 Dec 2019.



See seven other Richard Branson great aviation quotes.

Unfortunately, our flight was at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Yevhenii Dykhne

President of Ukraine International Airlines, after a UIA Boeing 737-800 was unintentionally shot down on 8 January 2020 by an Iranian missile. Press conference in Kiev, 11 January 2020,

It’s like a shitty pickup. It’s reliable and dependable and it may not be the most exotic thing, but boy, it’s what you want to be in if the weather gets rough.

Gordon Bethune

Former Boeing executive and pilot, who later ran Continental Airlines, talking about the 737. Interview with Peter Robinson, author of Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing, 2021.



See nine other Gordon Bethune great aviation quotes.

Autonomy is going to come to all of the airplanes eventually. The future of autonomy is real.

Dave Calhoun

Boeing CEO, at an event commemorating the final delivery of a B747, Everett, Washington. 31 January 2023. Reported by Bloomburg.

See one other Dave Calhoun great aviation quote.

I would absolutely not fly a MAX airplane. I’ve worked in the factory where they were built, and I saw the pressure employees were under to rush the planes out the door. I tried to get them to shut down before the first crash.

Edward Pierson

Former Boeing senior manager 737 production, Los Angeles Times newspaper, 30 January 2024. His contemporary concerns are detailed in the 2021 book Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing:

“Frankly right now all my internal warning bells are going off. For the first time in my life, I'm sorry to say that I’m hesitant about putting my family on a Boeing airplane.”

Ed Pierson, senior manager 737 production, letter to Scott Campbell, general manager of the 737 factory, 2018. Internal communication made public at House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, 11 December 2019.

There are issues around the safety culture in Boeing. Their priorities have been focused on production and not on safety and quality.

Michael Whitaker

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator, during interview with Lester Holt, NBC News, 19 March 2024.

Asked if Boeing was too big to fail, he said “Economics isn’t part of my portfolio, but I would say they’re too big to not make a good airplane. They have all the resources they need. There’s no reason they can’t make a good airplane, and that’s our focus right now.” The FAA had already capped Boeing production volume.

First among these is our finding that there exists a “disconnect” between the words that are being said by Boeing management, and what is being seen and experienced by the technicians and engineers.

They hear “safety is our number one priority”, but they see that that is only true as long as you meet your production milestones. They hear “speak up if you see anything unsafe”, but they see that when they do, there’s little feedback, and if they insist, they may find themselves on the short end of the stick next time raises are distributed, or worse.

Javier de Luis

Aerospace systems engineering lecturer at MIT and member of the FAA Expert Review Panel on Boeing, report to the U.S. Senate, 17 April 2024.

Thrust not achieved … falling … Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

Air India Flight 171

Last transmission from Boeing 787 before crashing after takeoff, Ahmedabad, India. 12 June 2025.

Didn’t see what you were looking for? Start again at the home page, or try another search: