FAA chief calls out 'safety culture issues' at Boeing

After recently visiting Boeing facilities, FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker said he found there were issues with the company's safety culture, but he expects the aerospace giant to get its act together.

“There are safety culture issues at Boeing. Their priorities have been focused on production and not on safety and quality,” he told NBC News' Lester Holt on Tuesday. “So what we're really focused on now is shifting that focus from production to safety and quality.”

Whitaker spoke with Holt more than two months after the door panel of an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 blew off shortly after takeoff. It has put Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer, under the microscope.

Since the plane made an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, Boeing has come under fire following a series of plane accidents. In early March, a United Airlines Boeing lost a tire after takeoff, adding another incident to the company's list of safety questions.

Whitaker said the thing that concerned him at Boeing was that a “thorough safety briefing” before going to the manufacturing floor was not part of the process. He added that many of the conversations did not focus on “quality, warranty and safety” because they were focused on production.

He added: “There is nothing wrong with the production, but it must follow safety standards.”

After launching its own investigation into the recent incidents, the Federal Aviation Administration criticized Boeing for quality control problems in a statement earlier this month. The agency said its six-week audit of Boeing found “multiple instances in which companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.”

Holt read a recent statement from Boeing that said the company is focused on “demonstrating change and building confidence one aircraft at a time.”

The Nightly News host asked Whittaker whether the company was “too big to fail”, despite heavy criticism of Boeing.

“Economics isn't part of my portfolio, but I would say it's too big to make a good plane. They have all the resources they need,” Whitaker replied. “There's no reason they can't make a good plane, and that's our focus right now.”