Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun faced bipartisan heat Tuesday when he sat down for his first congressional testimony, nearly six months after the door plug on a Boeing 737 Max 9 exploded during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
Calhoun, who announced in March that he would step down at the end of the year, sought to assure senators that his company was serious about improving its safety and quality practices amid ongoing investigations by the Justice Department and federal regulators.
Two out of every three planes flying in the U.S. are Boeing planes, Calhoun noted, and the planemaker receives billions of dollars from the federal government every year, most of it coming from the Department of Defense.
“We are here because we want Boeing to be successful. Boeing needs to succeed for the sake of the jobs it provides, for the sake of the local economies it supports, for the sake of the American traveling public, for the sake of our military,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who chairs the Subcommittee. Senate Homeland Security Investigations and Governmental Affairs Chair who held the hearing.
But Blumenthal’s office released new whistleblower allegations Tuesday morning that the senator said raise concerns about Boeing’s commitment to actually making the promised changes.
Sam Mohawk, a quality assurance inspector at Boeing, alleged that the company mishandled defective parts, that those parts were likely installed on planes including the 737 Max, and that the company retaliated against him when he raised concerns.
“The 737 program was missing hundreds of nonconforming parts,” Mohawk said in a staff statement. memorandum to members of the Senate subcommittee. Mohawk filed a complaint detailing the allegations with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on June 11.
Additional whistleblowers appeared before the Senate subcommittee in April to detail allegations of security concerns and a culture of silence and cost-cutting at the organization.
Sam Salehpour, another Boeing quality engineer, alleged during that hearing that fuselage parts on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner were not being fused properly, which could cause the plane to break apart in mid-air after a long period of time.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the subcommittee’s ranking member, said he was “disappointed” that major airline customers of Boeing refused to testify before the committee to explain their quality and maintenance systems. to assure the American public.
Boeing delivered its plan to improve its safety and quality assurance culture and measure improvements to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last month.
The plan included an additional 300 hours of training, quality inspections and approvals of 737 airframes before they were sent to suppliers, and more time for managers to be present on the factory floor.
When Senator Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) asked Calhoun how he planned to build trust in Boeing leadership to solidify these changes, Calhoun said the company celebrates “the people who provide us with information that helps our operation” but who had “A long way to go”. , and we have to keep working on it.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) asked Calhoun exactly what he did to earn his $32.8 million annual salary, pointing out that the executive’s compensation soared 45 percent from 2022 to 2023.
When Hawley pressed Calhoun on why he hadn’t resigned, the embattled CEO said, “I’m going to stick with it.”
“I’m proud of every action we took,” Calhoun added.
“Wow. Well, there’s some news for you,” Hawley said after the heated exchange.
Blumenthal, a former prosecutor, was also “very angry” when Calhoun denied that Boeing employees knew about problems with the flight stabilization Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System that led to the fatal and high-profile crashes of the Boeing 737 Max. 8 in 2018 and 2019.
“The evidence shows, in fact, that the engineers who worked on this plane knew that this faulty control system caused the nose to lower under certain circumstances,” Blumenthal said.
“Lion Air and Ethiopian Air struggled to lift the nose as the plane fell toward the sea, and they couldn’t because they didn’t know what was happening,” Blumenthal added, referring to the 2018 and 2019 crashes. The reason they didn’t know what was going on is because Boeing hid it from the FAA.”
The Justice Department brought criminal charges against Boeing in 2021 for allegedly conspiring to defraud the U.S., but the prosecution was delayed after Boeing paid a $2.5 billion fine.
Calhoun apologized to the families of victims who died in the 2018 and 2019 crashes at the start of the hearing.
“I want to apologize personally, on behalf of everyone at Boeing. We are deeply sorry for your losses. Nothing is more important than the safety of the people who board our planes. Every day, we seek to honor the memory of those lost through a constant commitment to safety and quality,” said Calhoun.
The Justice Department said last month that Boeing violated the deferred prosecution agreement “by failing to design, implement and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.”
The company reacted, saying: “We believe we have honored the terms of this agreement.” The Federal Public Ministry said it would let the court know how they want to proceed until July 7th.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
