WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg will face tough questions on the planemaker’s recent safety issues and other hot-button topics on Wednesday when he appears before the Senate Commerce Committee.
Lawmakers have been scrutinizing the company since a January 2024 mid-air emergency involving a new 737 MAX 9 that was missing four key bolts raised fresh questions about Boeing’s quality and safety culture, as well as regulatory oversight.
“New leadership at Boeing will get a chance to tell Congress how they are implementing new safety standards and creating a stronger safety culture,” said Senator Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the committee.
Ortberg will tell senators Boeing made “serious missteps” in recent years but has since made “sweeping changes”, according to a copy of prepared testimony seen by Reuters and confirmed by the planemaker.
“Boeing has made serious missteps in recent years – and it is unacceptable. In response, we have made sweeping changes to the people, processes, and overall structure of our company,” Ortberg will say in his written testimony.
Ortberg told employees in a separate email the hearing “is an important step in our work together to restore trust in Boeing.”
Ortberg may also face questions on other issues, including the company’s delayed Air Force One delivery schedule, the impact of tariffs and the status of the planemaker’s criminal case involving representations it made about the 737 MAX before fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people.
In February, President Donald Trump said he was not happy with Boeing and might have to go a different route with the next generation of Air Force One, the presidential transport planes.
Ortberg took over as CEO in August of last year. His predecessor Dave Calhoun announced his resignation shortly after the January mid-air incident, in which an Alaska Airlines door panel blew out, and testified before a Senate panel in July.
After the incident, the Federal Aviation Administration imposed a production cap of 38 planes per month on the 737 MAX. Boeing is still awaiting FAA approval of two new versions of the MAX.
Last month, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Boeing had lost the trust of the American people and needed strict oversight after the Alaska Airlines incident and two fatal crashes.
The prior head of the FAA said it could take years to change Boeing’s culture.
In July of last year, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge and pay at least $243.6 million after breaching a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement. A U.S. judge last week set a June 23 trial date in the case after a media report that Boeing was seeking to withdraw from the terms of its plea agreement.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
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