Stephanie Pope faces turbulent start as Boeing’s new co-pilot

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Stephanie Pope was still in her first week as Boeing’s first-ever chief operating officer when a frightening accident on a 737 Max thrust the company into a new crisis and put the manufacturing and supply chain she oversees under the microscope.

Pope was previously head of the aircraft maker’s services business — its only division to deliver a profit in recent years. She was a relatively new face to investors when the company announced her appointment last month, effective January 1. Not only is Pope a Boeing lifer, she is widely considered to be the heir apparent when chief executive Dave Calhoun retires. If she gets the top job, she would be Boeing’s first female CEO.

She has been charged with overseeing Boeing’s commercial plane, defence and services businesses, and ensuring smooth operations in the supply chain, quality control and manufacturing. Those are the very areas now being scrutinised following Calhoun’s admission that a “mistake” led to a piece of fuselage falling off an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 flight last week, leaving a hole and terrifying passengers.

Last month Pope said Boeing would continue to improve performance “while ensuring the highest levels of safety, quality and transparency in all that we do”. That now looks harder as the US Federal Aviation Administration investigates whether the plane that Boeing manufactured met its own specifications.

It is up to Boeing’s chief safety officer to ensure the 737 Max 9 can return to the skies. But it will be Pope’s job to stop these “quality escapes” from happening again, whether at the plane maker or one of its suppliers, setting up a make-or-break moment for her career.

Pope grew up in a suburb of St Louis, Missouri, and her father worked for 30 years at aerospace manufacturer McDonnell Douglas, where he started as a mechanic. Pope told the local…