AFP – Boeing chief executive officer (CEO) Dave Calhoun was expected to apologise to families of crash victims yesterday as he faces a Senate grilling following accusations that the plane maker put profits over safety.
The hearing, an examination of ‘Boeing’s Broken Safety Culture’, follows an April session of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations featuring a Boeing engineer who testified that he was punished for raising safety questions about the top-selling 787 Dreamliner and 777.
“Five years ago, Boeing made a promise to overhaul its safety practices and culture. That promise proved empty, and the American people deserve an explanation,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said earlier this month.
“Years of putting profits ahead of safety, stock price ahead of quality, and production speed ahead of responsibility has brought Boeing to this moment of reckoning, and its hollow promises can no longer stand.”
The whistleblower allegations surrounding the 787 and 777 are only one of the myriad issues facing Boeing that could come up yesterday. The company is also implementing safety upgrades under the tight supervision of the Federal Aviation Administration after a fuselage panel on a 737 MAX blew out mid-flight in January, necessitating an emergency landing and leading to a brief grounding of some MAX planes.
The Department of Justice meanwhile concluded in May that Boeing could be prosecuted for violating a criminal settlement following two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019, off Indonesia and in Ethiopia.
Next steps around a decision on whether to prosecute will come next month. Calhoun has previously apologised for the Alaska Airlines incident and announced production halts and other steps to improve safety and quality assurance.
In Calhoun’s opening statement, released by Boeing ahead of the hearing, the CEO reiterated those points, emphasising that the company has strict policies prohibiting retaliation against employees who report problems.
“Our culture is far from perfect, but we are taking action and making progress,” Calhoun said.
“We understand the gravity, and we are committed to moving forward with transparency and accountability, while elevating employee engagement.”
At the April 17 hearing, witnesses painted a disturbing picture of a company that blew off safety questions and sidelined critics as it chased faster production and bigger profits.
The star witness was engineer Sam Salehpour who went public with allegations that, because of flawed manufacturing processes, the Dreamliner could suffer from premature fatigue, resulting in a potentially catastrophic accident because of excessively large gaps in the plane’s assembly.
Boeing has pointed to extensive testing that it says proves the 787 is safe.
Salehpour also testified that he was blackballed by company higher-ups and feared for his personal well-being after raising concerns about safety.
