David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee said on Thursday it will hold a hearing next week with members of a panel that issued a report in February criticizing Boeing’s (NYSE:) safety culture and calling for significant improvements.
Next Wednesday’s hearing comes as the US planemaker grapples with a full-blown safety crisis that has damaged its reputation after a panel exploded in mid-air on January 5 on a new 737 MAX 9. The company has since undergone management changes and US regulators have imposed restrictions on its production and aircraft deliveries fell by half in March.
The committee will hear from three panel members, including Tracy Dillinger, a NASA safety culture expert, Javier de Luis, an aeronautics expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Najmedin Meshkati, a University of Southern California professor and aviation safety expert.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, the committee’s chairwoman, said Wednesday that she was impressed by the panel’s report of expert witnesses and wanted to hear from members first before calling the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for future hearings.
Boeing declined to comment on the hearing.
The commission’s report was drafted by Congress following the fatal 737 MAX crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019, which killed 346 people, including commissioner De Luis’ sister in the Ethiopian crash.
He criticized Boeing’s safety culture on a number of fronts and found “a lack of awareness of safety performance at all levels of the organization.”
The commission also noted “inadequate and confusing implementation of the components of a positive safety culture.”
The panel was appointed by the FAA in early 2023 and said within six months Boeing must review the recommendations “and develop an action plan.”
In February, the FAA ordered Boeing to fix systemic quality control problems within 90 days after an audit found deficiencies in the company’s manufacturing processes.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations later in the day next Wednesday will hear testimony from Boeing whistleblower and company engineer Sam Salehpour, who claims the company failed to take into account safety and quality issues in the production of the 787 and 777 aircraft.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the commission’s chairman, said Salehpour would testify about what the senator called “a breakdown in Boeing’s safety culture.” Blumenthal also asked outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun to testify at future hearings.
Boeing responded to Salepour this week, saying the company has full confidence in the 787, adding that those statements “are inaccurate and do not reflect the comprehensive work Boeing has done to ensure the quality and long-term safety of the aircraft.”