Who was the CEO of Boeing at the time of the first 737 Max crash in October 2018?

Dennis Muilenburg was Boeing’s CEO when the first Boeing 737 MAX crash occurred in October 2018.

Lion Air Flight 610 crashed on October 29, 2018, shortly after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 plunged into the Java Sea, killing all 189 people aboard. Muilenburg had become Boeing’s president and CEO in July 2015, succeeding Jim McNerney, and he was the company’s top executive during the crash and its immediate aftermath.

The accident triggered intense scrutiny of the 737 MAX’s design, certification, pilot information and the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS. A second MAX crash, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, occurred in March 2019, killing 157 people and leading to the worldwide grounding of the aircraft.

Muilenburg testified before the U.S. Senate in October 2019. Boeing’s board removed him as CEO in December 2019; David Calhoun succeeded him in January 2020. Thus, Calhoun is a later CEO, not the answer for the 2018 crash.