Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun faced bipartisan criticism during his first congressional testimony Tuesday, nearly six months after a door plug blew off on a Boeing 737 Max 9 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 the company was serious about improving safety and quality control amid ongoing investigations by the Justice Department and federal regulators.
Calhoun noted that two out of every three planes flying in the United States are made by Boeing and that the company receives billions of dollars each year from the federal government, most of it from the Department of Defense.
“We’re here because we want Boeing to succeed. Boeing needs to succeed for the jobs it provides, the local economies it supports, American travelers and our military,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which held the hearing.
But Sen. Blumenthal’s office released a new whistleblower complaint Tuesday morning that the senator said raises concerns about Boeing’s commitment to actually follow through on the changes it has promised.
Boeing quality assurance inspector Sam Mohawk alleged that the company mishandled defective parts and retaliated against him when he raised concerns that those parts may have ended up in planes including the 737 Max.
“The 737 program was losing hundreds of non-conforming parts,” Mohawk said in a staff statement. Memo to members Mohawk filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on June 11 detailing the allegations.
In April, additional whistleblowers appeared before a Senate subcommittee, detailing allegations of safety concerns and a culture of silence and cutting corners within the organization.
Another Boeing quality control engineer, Sam Salehpour, argued at the hearing that fuselage parts on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners were not joined properly and could cause the planes to split in the air over time.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the subcommittee’s ranking member, said he was “disappointed” that major airline customers of Boeing had refused to testify before the committee to explain their quality and maintenance systems to reassure the American public.
Boeing last month submitted a plan to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to improve its safety culture and quality assurance and measure the improvements.
The plan included 300 hours of additional training, quality inspections and approvals on 737 aircraft before they were shipped to suppliers, and increased management presence on the factory floor.
When Sen. LaFonza Butler (D-Calif.) asked Calhoun how he plans to foster confidence in Boeing’s leadership to make these changes stick, Calhoun responded, “[s] “These people are providing us with information that helps us do our work,” but “we still have a long way to go and we need to continue to work on that.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, asked Calhoun what exactly he did to earn his $32.8 million annual salary, noting that the executive’s compensation jumped 45% from 2022 to 2023.
When Hawley pressed Calhoun why he wouldn’t resign, the embattled CEO replied, “I’m going to see this through.”
“I’m proud of all the actions we’ve taken,” Calhoun added.
“Wow. Now, I have news for you,” Hawley said after the heated exchange.
Blumenthal, the former prosecutor, also said he was “really upset” by Calhoun’s denial that Boeing employees knew about problems with the Flight Stability and Control Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), which contributed to the fatal Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019.
“The evidence shows that the engineers who actually maintained this airplane knew that under certain circumstances the faulty control system would cause the plane to pitch nose down,” Blumenthal said.
“Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines struggled to raise the noses of their planes as they plummeted toward the ocean, but they couldn’t because they didn’t know what was going on,” Blumenthal added, referring to the crashes in 2018 and 2019. “The reason they didn’t know what was going on is because Boeing covered it up. They covered it up from the FAA.”
The Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Boeing in 2021 for defrauding the United States, but prosecution was stayed after Boeing paid a $2.5 billion fine.
At the start of the hearing, Calhoun apologized to the families of the victims who died in the crashes in 2018 and 2019.
“On behalf of everyone at Boeing, I personally apologize and am deeply saddened by your loss. Nothing is more important than the safety of the people who fly on our aircraft, and every day we strive to honor the memory of those we lost through our unwavering commitment to safety and quality,” Calhoun said.
The Justice Department announced last month that Boeing violated the deferred prosecution agreement by “failed to design, implement and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws throughout its business activities.”
The company countered that it “believes it is in compliance with the terms of the agreement.” Federal prosecutors said they would tell the court how they wanted to proceed. Until July 7.
