Under pressure on plane safety, Boeing is buying stressed supplier Spirit for $4.7 billion

ARLINGTON, Va. — Boeing announced plans to acquire key supplier Spirit AeroSystems for $4.7 billion, a move that it says will improve plane quality and safety amid increasing scrutiny by Congress, airlines and the U.S. Justice Department.

Boeing previously owned Spirit , and the purchase would reverse a longtime Boeing strategy of outsourcing key work on its passenger planes. That approach has been criticized as problems at Spirit disrupted production and delivery of popular Boeing jetliners including 737s and 787s.

“We believe this deal is in the best interest of the flying public, our airline customers, the employees of Spirit and Boeing, our shareholders and the country more broadly,” Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun said in a statement late Sunday.

Spirit AeroSystems builds and supplies multiple structural components for military aircraft, including Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail and P-8 Poseidon, Northrop Grumman’s B-21 Raider, the Bell V-280 Valor, and struts and nacelles for the B-52 Stratofortress.

Boeing is the fifth-largest company in the world based on defense revenue, according to Defense News’ Top 100 list . Spirit AeroSystems ranked 86.

Concerns about safety came to a head after the Jan. 5 blowout of a panel on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 at 16,000 feet over Oregon. The Federal Aviation Administration soon after announced increased oversight of Boeing and Spirit, which supplied the fuselage for the plane.

No one was seriously injured in the Alaska Airlines door incident, which terrified passengers, but Boeing is under pressure from the Justice Department to plead guilty to criminal fraud in connection with two deadly plane crashes involving its 737 Max jetliners more than five years ago.

Boeing has until the end of the week to accept or reject the offer, which includes the giant aerospace company agreeing to an independent monitor who would oversee its compliance with anti-fraud laws, according to several people who heard federal prosecutors detail a proposed offer Sunday.

The Justice Department said in a May court filing that Boeing violated terms of a 2021 settlement allowing the company to avoid prosecution for actions leading up to the crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia, which killed 346 people.

Those crashes were blamed on a faulty sensor in a flight-control system; the investigation is separate from the probe of the more recent Alaska Airlines blowout, which involved Spirit.

Boeing spun off Spirit, which is based in Wichita, Kansas, and not related to Spirit Airlines, in 2005. In recent years, quality problems have mounted, including fuselage panels that didn’t fit together precisely enough and holes that were improperly drilled.

Spirit removed its CEO in October and replaced him with Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive who served as acting defense secretary in the Trump administration.

Things seemed to be going more smoothly until the Alaska Airlines incident. Investigators said a panel used in place of an extra emergency door had been removed at a Boeing factory to let Spirit workers fix damaged rivets, and bolts that help hold the panel in place were missing after the repair job. It is not clear who removed the bolts and failed to put them back.

Spirit said in May that it was laying off about 450 workers at its Wichita plant because of a production slowdown since the January incident. Its total workforce was just over 13,000 people.

“Bringing Spirit and Boeing together will enable greater integration of both companies’ manufacturing and engineering capabilities, including safety and quality systems,” Shanahan said.

The acquisition's equity value of $4.7 billion is $37.25 per share, while the total value of the deal is around $8.3 billion, which includes Spirit’s last reported net debt, the aerospace company said.

Boeing common stock will be exchanged for Spirit shares according to a variable formula that depends on a weighted average of the share price over a 15-trading-day period ending on the second day before the deal closes, Boeing said.

The companies also announced an agreement with Airbus to negotiate the purchase of Spirit assets involved with programs operated by the European aerospace firm. The Airbus agreement is set to commence when Boeing’s acquisition of Spirit is completed, the two U.S. companies said.

Stephen Losey and Chris Martin with Defense News contributed to this report.

弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿——波音公司宣布计划以 47 亿美元收购关键供应商 Spirit AeroSystems，该公司表示，此举将提高飞机质量和安全性，以应对国会、航空公司和美国司法部日益严格的审查。

波音公司此前拥有Spirit航空公司，此次收购将扭转波音长期以来将客机关键工作外包的战略。这种做法一直备受诟病，因为Spirit航空公司的问题扰乱了包括737和787在内的热门波音客机的生产和交付。

波音公司总裁兼首席执行官戴夫·卡尔霍恩在周日晚间的一份声明中表示：“我们相信，这项交易符合广大航空旅客、我们的航空公司客户、精神航空和波音公司的员工、我们的股东以及整个国家的最佳利益。”

Spirit AeroSystems 为军用飞机制造和供应多种结构部件，包括波音公司的 E-7 楔尾和 P-8 海神，诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司的 B-21 突袭者，贝尔公司的 V-280 勇士，以及 B-52 同温层堡垒的支柱和短舱。

根据《防务新闻》发布的全球百强企业榜单，波音公司按国防收入计算是全球第五大公司，而Spirit AeroSystems公司排名第86位。

1月5日，阿拉斯加航空公司一架波音737 Max 9客机在俄勒冈州上空16000英尺处发生面板爆裂事故，引发了人们对飞机安全的担忧。此后不久，美国联邦航空管理局宣布将加强对波音公司和为该机型提供机身的Spirit航空公司的监管。

阿拉斯加航空公司的舱门事件虽然吓坏了乘客，但所幸无人重伤。然而，波音公司正面临司法部的压力，要求其就五年前两起涉及其737 Max喷气式客机的致命空难事件，承认犯有刑事欺诈罪。

据几位周日听取联邦检察官详细介绍拟议方案的人士透露，波音公司必须在本周结束前接受或拒绝该方案，其中包括这家航空航天巨头同意接受一名独立监督员，该监督员将监督其遵守反欺诈法律的情况。

美国司法部在 5 月份提交的法庭文件中表示，波音公司违反了 2021 年达成的一项和解协议的条款，该协议允许该公司避免因其在埃塞俄比亚和印度尼西亚坠机事件中的行为而受到起诉，这两起坠机事件共造成 346 人死亡。

这些坠机事故被归咎于飞行控制系统中的故障传感器；此次调查与最近阿拉斯加航空公司爆炸事故的调查是分开进行的，后者还涉及精神航空公司。

波音公司于 2005 年将总部位于堪萨斯州威奇托的 Spirit 公司分拆出来，该公司与 Spirit 航空公司无关。近年来，该公司的质量问题不断增加，包括机身面板装配精度不够以及孔洞钻孔不当等问题。

Spirit 公司于 10 月份撤换了其首席执行官，并任命帕特里克·沙纳汉 (Patrick Shanahan) 接任，沙纳汉曾是波音公司的高管，并在特朗普政府担任过代理国防部长。

一切似乎进展顺利，直到阿拉斯加航空公司的事故发生。调查人员称，波音工厂曾拆除一块用于代替备用紧急出口的面板，以便让精神航空的工人修复损坏的铆钉，但维修后固定该面板的螺栓却不见了。目前尚不清楚是谁拆除了这些螺栓，又为何没有重新安装。

Spirit公司5月份表示，由于1月份事故后生产放缓，该公司位于威奇托的工厂将裁员约450人。该公司员工总数略超过13000人。

“将 Spirit 和波音合并，将使两家公司的制造和工程能力，包括安全和质量体系，能够更好地整合，”沙纳汉说。

这家航空航天公司表示，此次收购的股权价值为 47 亿美元，合每股 37.25 美元，而交易总价值约为 83 亿美元，其中包括 Spirit 最新公布的净债务。

波音公司表示，波音普通股将按照可变公式兑换成Spirit股票，该公式取决于交易完成前第二个交易日结束的15个交易日期间股价的加权平均值。

这两家公司还宣布与空客达成协议，就收购Spirit公司旗下参与这家欧洲航空航天公司运营项目的资产进行谈判。两家美国公司表示，与空客的协议将在波音完成对Spirit公司的收购后生效。

《防务新闻》的斯蒂芬·洛西和克里斯·马丁对本报道亦有贡献。