US lawmakers are expected to press Boeing’s chief executive on Tuesday about the company’s latest plans to fix manufacturing problems, and relatives of people killed in two Boeing 737 Max crashes are expected to be in the room, watching him.
CEO David Calhoun is scheduled to appear before the Senate investigations subcommittee, which is led by Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., critic of Boeing.
The hearing will mark the first appearance before Congress by Calhoun — or another high-ranking Boeing official — since a panel exploded from a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. No one was seriously injured in the incident, but it has raised new concerns about the company’s best-selling commercial aircraft.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are conducting separate investigations.
“From the beginning, we took responsibility and cooperated transparently with the NTSB and the FAA,” Calhoun said in prepared remarks for the hearing. He defended the company’s safety culture.
“Our culture is far from perfect, but we are taking action and making progress,” Calhoun said in prepared remarks. “We are taking comprehensive measures today to strengthen safety and quality.”
Blumenthal has heard before, when Boeing is reeling from the deadly Max accident in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in Ethiopia.
“Five years ago, Boeing made a promise to fix its safety practices and culture. Those promises proved empty, and the American people deserve an explanation,” Blumenthal said in announcing the hearing. He called Calhoun’s testimony a necessary step for Boeing to regain credibility.
Calhoun’s appearance is also scheduled as the Justice Department considers whether to sue Boeing for violating the terms of a settlement following the fatal crash.
The company said it had received the message. Boeing said it has slowed production, encouraged employees to report safety concerns, stopped the assembly line for a day to let workers talk about safety, and appointed a retired Navy admiral to lead a quality review. Late last month, it submitted a repair plan mandated by the FAA.
However, bad news for Boeing continues.
Last week, the FAA said it was investigating how improperly documented titanium parts made their way into Boeing’s supply chain, and federal officials are examining “substantial” damage to Southwest Airlines’ 737 Max after an unusual central flight control problem.
Boeing announced that it had not received a single order for its new Max aircraft – previously its best-selling aircraft – in two months.
Blumenthal first asked Calhoun to appear before a Senate subcommittee after a whistleblower, a Boeing quality engineer, claimed that manufacturing errors increased safety risks in Boeing’s two largest planes, the 787 Dreamliner and the 777. He said the company should explain why. the public must be confident in Boeing’s work.
Boeing disputes the whistleblower’s claims, saying extensive tests and inspections have not revealed the problems that engineers predicted.
Calhoun announced in late March that he would retire at the end of the year. The head of the company’s commercial aircraft unit resigned on the day of Calhoun’s announcement.
The families of those killed in the Boeing Max crash in Ethiopia plan to attend Tuesday’s hearing on Capitol Hill. He has repeatedly pressured the Justice Department to prosecute Boeing.
“We will not rest until we see justice,” said Zipporah Kuria, whose father died in the crash.
The Justice Department determined last month that Boeing violated a 2021 settlement that protects the company from prosecution for fraud for allegedly misleading regulators that approved the 737 Max. A top department official said Boeing failed to make changes to detect and prevent future violations of anti-fraud laws.
Prosecutors have until July 7 to decide what to do next.
