WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee said Thursday it will hold a hearing next week with members of an expert panel that issued a report in February criticizing Boeing's safety culture and calling for major improvements.
The hearing next Wednesday comes as the American planemaker faces a comprehensive safety crisis that has undermined its reputation after a panel exploded in mid-air on January 5 on a new 737 Max 9 plane. It has since undergone a management change, in the United States. Regulators imposed restrictions on its production and aircraft deliveries fell by half in March.
The panel will hear from three panelists, including Tracy Dellinger, a NASA expert on safety culture, Javier De Luis, an aviation expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Najmuddin Mishkati, a professor at the University of Southern California and an expert on aviation safety.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, the committee's chairwoman, said Wednesday that she was impressed by the expert witness panel's report and wanted to hear from members first before she contacted the FAA for a future hearing.
Boeing declined to comment on the hearing.
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The panel's report was directed by Congress after deadly 737 Max plane crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019 that killed 346 people, including panel member Day-Lewis' 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 committee also noted “inadequate and confusing implementation of components of a positive safety culture.”
The panel was appointed by the FAA in early 2023 and said Boeing must review the recommendations within six months “and develop an action plan.”
The Federal Aviation Administration in February ordered Boeing to address systemic quality control issues within 90 days after an audit found fault with the company's manufacturing processes.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will hear testimony later next Wednesday from a Boeing whistleblower and company engineer Sam Salehpour who claims it dismissed safety and quality concerns in production of the 787 and 777 jets.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, the committee's chairman, said Salehpour would testify about what the senator called “Boeing's broken safety culture.” Blumenthal also asked outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun to testify at a future hearing.
This week, Boeing responded to Salihpour, saying that the company is completely confident in the 787, adding that these claims are “inaccurate and do not represent the comprehensive work that Boeing has done to ensure the quality and long-term safety of the aircraft.”
