Boeing CEO David Calhoun scheduled to field questions about plane safety from US senators
Boeing 737 Max jetliners plan to be in the room, watching him. CEO David Calhoun is scheduled to appear before the Senate investigations subcommittee, which is chaired by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a Boeing critic.
The hearing will mark the first appearance before Congress by Calhoun — or any other high-ranking Boeing official — since a panel blew out of a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. No one was seriously injured in the incident, but it raised fresh concerns about the company's best-selling commercial aircraft.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are conducting separate investigations.
«From the beginning, we took responsibility and cooperated transparently with the NTSB and the FAA,» Calhoun said in remarks prepared for the hearing. He defended the company's safety culture.
«Our culture is far from perfect, but we are taking action and making progress,» Calhoun said in the prepared remarks. «We are taking comprehensive action today to strengthen safety and quality.»
Blumenthal has heard that before, when Boeing was reeling from deadly Max crashes in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in Ethiopia.
«Five years ago, Boeing made a promise to overhaul its safety practices and culture. That promise proved empty, and the American people deserve an explanation,» Blumenthal said when he announced the hearing. He called Calhoun's testimony a necessary step for Boeing to regain public trust.
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