Senate to address Boeing safety culture in hearings
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee said on Thursday it would hold a hearing next week with members of an expert panel that released a report in February criticizing Boeing’s safety culture and calling for significant improvements.
The airplane manufacturer has been grappling with a full-blown safety crisis that has undermined its reputation following a Jan. 5 midair panel blowout on a new 737 Max 9.
The committee will hear from three panel members: Tracy Dillinger, a NASA expert on safety culture; Javier de Luis, an aeronautics expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Najmedin Meshkati, a University of Southern California professor and expert on aviation safety.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, the committee chair, said on Wednesday she was impressed with the expert panel report and wanted to hear from members before she called the Federal Aviation Administration for a future hearing.
Boeing declined to comment on the hearing.
The panel’s report was directed by Congress after fatal 737 Max crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019 that killed 346 people – including panel member De Luis’ sister in the Ethiopian crash.
It criticized Boeing’s safety culture on a number of fronts and found “a lack of awareness of safety-related metrics at all levels of the organization.”
The panel, appointed by the FAA in early 2023, said Boeing should review the recommendations “and develop an action plan” within six months.
The FAA in February ordered Boeing to address systemic quality-control issues within 90 days after an audit found fault with the company’s manufacturing processes.
Also, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will hear testimony next Wednesday from Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour, a whistleblower who claims the company dismissed safety and quality concerns in the production of 787 and 777 jets.
That panel’s chair, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, has also asked outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun to testify at a future hearing.
Boeing responded this week to Salehpour, saying the company is fully confident in the 787, adding that the claims “are inaccurate and do not represent the comprehensive work Boeing has done to ensure the quality and long-term safety of the aircraft.”