Much like Burke, he zeroed in on two key questions, starting with safety. “Is the MAX safe? And was MCAS involved?” But unlike the Johnson & Johnson chairman, he’d already convinced himself of the answers—and protecting the product came before people. “We need to make a strong statement on the first, and be clear that there are no supporting facts on the second,” Muilenburg wrote later that day to Toulouse, who was in the midst of drafting the company’s response.
