Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun took questions from U.S. lawmakers Tuesday afternoon and acknowledged the planemaker’s shortcomings after a January midair emergency involving an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 sparked a widespread alarm.
“I’m here to answer questions. “I am here in a spirit of transparency and I am here to take responsibility,” Calhoun told reporters earlier as he entered the courtroom.
Senators are expected to question Calhoun about the planemaker’s safety culture as well as the claims of a new employee whistleblower in a hearing that began before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
It is the first time Calhoun has faced questions from lawmakers and highlights Boeing’s poor safety reputation and the outgoing CEO, who is expected to leave at the end of the year following a management shakeup.
“This is a culture that continues to put profits first, push boundaries and disregard its workers,” panel chairman Sen. Richard Blumenthal said of Boeing. “A culture that allows retaliation against those who do not submit to the final result. A culture that desperately needs to be repaired.”
Blumenthal said a new complainant came forward after a hearing with a previous complainant in April.
Blumenthal said Tuesday that Sam Mohawk, Boeing’s current quality control investigator at its 737 factory in Renton, Washington, recently told the panel that he had witnessed a systemic disregard for documentation and accountability for nonconforming parts.
In a report released by the committee before the hearing, Mohawk said its work handling nonconforming parts became significantly more “complex and demanding” following the resumption of MAX production in 2020 following two fatal accidents that involved the model.
It alleged that the number of nonconformity reports skyrocketed by 300% compared to before the suspension and that the 737 program lost parts that were intentionally hidden from the Federal Aviation Administration during an inspection.
The report says Mohawk filed a related claim in June with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Boeing said in a statement that the planemaker is reviewing the claims it learned about on Monday.
“We continually encourage employees to report all concerns as our priority is to ensure the safety of our aircraft and the flying public,” he said.
Boeing also said it has increased the size of its quality team and “significantly increased the number of inspections per aircraft since 2019.”
Calhoun acknowledges deficiencies but seeks to emphasize the company’s efforts to improve.
“A lot has been said about Boeing’s culture. We have heard those concerns loud and clear. Our culture is far from perfect, but we are taking action and making progress,” Calhoun said.
Blumenthal called the hearing a “moment of reckoning” for Boeing.
“Boeing needs to stop thinking about the next earnings call and start thinking about the next generation,” Blumenthal said Tuesday.
Since a door plug on a 737 MAX 9 plane broke in mid-air on Jan. 5, scrutiny of the plane maker by regulators and airlines has intensified.
The National Transportation Safety Board said four key bolts were missing from the Alaska Airlines plane. The Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into the incident.
Last week, Michael Whitaker, head of the FAA, said the agency had been “hands-off” in its oversight of Boeing before the Jan. 5 crash. Another senator also launched an investigation into Boeing.
On May 30, Boeing submitted a quality improvement plan to the FAA after Whitaker gave it 90 days to develop a comprehensive effort to address “systemic quality control issues.”
It has prohibited the company from expanding production of the MAX.
Boeing last week told the Justice Department that it did not violate a deferred prosecution agreement after two fatal crashes of 737 MAX planes, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The DPA had protected the company from criminal prosecution stemming from accidents in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
