Authors: David Shepardson and Allison Lampert
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Boeing (NYSE:) CEO Dave Calhoun will tell a U.S. Senate committee on Tuesday that the carmaker understands concerns about its safety culture after a January mid-air emergency involving an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 caused widespread alarm.
“Much has been said about Boeing’s culture. We heard these concerns loud and clear. Our culture is far from perfect, but we are taking action and making progress,” Calhoun will tell the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, according to his written statement. the statement was first published by Reuters. “I know full well that this is an industry where we just have to get it right, every time.”
Since the Jan. 5 explosion of a door plug on a 737 MAX 9 plane, regulators and airlines have intensified scrutiny of the planemaker. Boeing shook up the board, and Calhoun said in March he would step down by the end of the year.
“Boeing must fix its broken safety culture, and that is the job facing management,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who chairs the panel holding Tuesday’s hearing. – This should have been done a long time ago.
He noted that in 2018 and 2019, the MAX 8 was involved in two fatal crashes that killed 346 people. “Boeing has lost its luster, and indeed its reputation for excellence, as a result of self-inflicted wounds,” Blumenthal said.
He said the modern whistleblower would come forward the day after the previous whistleblower was questioned in April.
The National Transportation Safety Board found that the Alaska Airlines plane was missing four key screws. The Justice Department has launched an investigation into the January incident.
“We have taken immediate action at our factories and in our supply chain to ensure that the special circumstances that led to this accident do not occur again,” Calhoun says. “I understand the seriousness of Boeing’s role in maintaining the integrity of aviation safety in our industry.”
Boeing is in talks to retake Spirit AeroSystems (NYSE:), the manufacturer of the 737 MAX fuselage.
Last week, Michael Whitaker, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, said the agency had “too little involvement” in overseeing Boeing before the Jan. 5 accident.
On May 30, Boeing submitted a comprehensive quality improvement plan to the FAA after Whitaker gave the company 90 days in overdue February to develop a comprehensive plan to address “systemic quality control issues.” He banned the company from expanding production of the MAX.
Calhoun said the plan includes “specific metrics that we will use to hold ourselves accountable and that the FAA will use to provide the required oversight.”
