Boeing is the subject of back-to-back Senate hearings Wednesday as Congress investigates the allegations. serious safety flaws An aircraft manufacturer in trouble.
The Senate Commerce Committee heard from its members. expert panel It found serious deficiencies in Boeing's safety culture. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said the public is asking the Federal Aviation Administration and Congress to ensure that flying on the company's planes is not dangerous.
“Commercial flying remains the safest way to travel, but recent incidents have understandably made the flying public feel anxious. There is a perception that the situation is getting worse,” Cruise said. said.
In a report released in February, a panel of experts found that although improvements had been made after the crashes of two Boeing Max planes that killed 346 people, deficiencies in Boeing's safety culture remained and raised concerns. It said employees who made statements could face pressure and retaliation.
One of the witnesses, Javier de Luis, an MIT aeronautics lecturer, lost his sister in a Boeing 737 Max 8 crash in Ethiopia in 2019. De Luis commented that there is a disconnect between what Boeing management is saying about safety and what workers are observing on the factory floor.
“They're hearing, 'Safety is our number one priority,'” he says. “What they're seeing is, that's true as long as the production milestones are met, and at that point the key is, 'Push it out the door as quickly as possible.'”
De Luis said that when he spoke with Boeing employees, he heard that there was “a very real fear of retaliation and retribution if you stand up for yourself.”
Boeing Co. has been in crisis since a door plug panel on its 737 Max jetliner blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. Investigators are focusing on the 4 bolts They appear to have been removed during repair work at Boeing's factory and not replaced.
At Wednesday's second Senate hearing, boeing engineer He claims parts of the 787 Dreamliner jet's skin are not properly secured and could eventually fall apart. The whistleblower's lawyers said Boeing ignored the engineers' concerns and prevented them from speaking with experts about fixing the flaws.
Whistleblower Sam Salepour sent documents to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating Boeing's manufacturing quality and safety. Ed Pearson, former manager of the Boeing 737 program, is also scheduled to testify before the Senate Investigations Subcommittee on Wednesday. Two other aviation technical experts are also on the witness list.
The Democratic senator who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and his Republican colleagues told Boeing pile of documents It goes back 6 years.
Lawmakers are seeking all records related to the production of Boeing's 787 and 777 planes, including safety concerns and complaints raised by Boeing employees, contractors and airlines. Some of the questions asked for information about Salepour's claims that the Dreamliner's carbon composite panels were poorly installed.
A Boeing spokeswoman said the company is cooperating with lawmakers in their investigation and has offered to provide documents and explanations.
The company says claims about the 787's structural integrity are false. In both cases, two Boeing engineering executives said this week: Design testing and inspection On some planes, some of which are 12 years old, the composite panels showed no signs of fatigue or cracking. They suggested that the material, made of carbon fiber and resin, is less susceptible to fatigue, a constant concern with traditional aluminum airframes.
Boeing officials also dismissed another claim by Mr. Salepour that he witnessed factory workers adjusting their position by jumping onto parts of the 777's fuselage.
Salepour is the latest whistleblower to come forward with allegations of manufacturing problems at Boeing. The airline faces a criminal investigation by the Justice Department and separate investigations by the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board after an exploding panel left a gaping hole in an Alaska Airlines plane flying over Oregon. .
CEO David Calhoun said: get off Boeing has said multiple times at the end of the year that it was taking steps to improve its manufacturing quality and safety culture. He called the Alaska plane explosion a “watershed moment” that would lead to the birth of a better Boeing company.
Comments like this are met with a lot of skepticism.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, said before Wednesday's hearing, “We need to understand what Boeing is doing, not just what it says it's doing. We need to consider it.”
The FAA is also likely to take a hit. Duckworth said that until recently, the agency “overlooked too many of Boeing's repeated misdeeds,” particularly when it certified the 737 Max nearly a decade ago. The deadly Max crashed due to a malfunction in the flight control system that the FAA did not fully understand.
Leaders of the Senate Investigations Subcommittee also made the request. FAA documents Regarding Boeing's supervision.