Aircraft manufacturer Boeing ended up being the subject of two Senate hearings on Wednesday as lawmakers on Capitol Hill dove deep into allegations of major safety failures with the craft being produced by the company, which has now pushed them into full-on crisis mode ever since a door plug panel was blown off a 737 Max jetliner during an Alaska Airlines flight that took place back in January.
Just a free bit of advice. If you’re going to be flying somewhere, anywhere, you might want to find out whether or not the tin can you’ll be riding miles up in the sky is made by Boeing or not, because if so, you might want to reconsider your travel plans.
According to the Associated Press, the Senate Commerce Committee, heard testimony from severeal members of an expert panel that discovered a number of serious issues within the Boeing safety culture. Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz stated that the general public wants the Federal Aviation Administration, along with congressional lawmakers, ensure them that it’s still safe to board these planes and that flying has not become more dangerous. I mean, that’s a reasonable request, don’t you think?
“Flying commercial remains the safest way to travel, but understandably, recent incidents have left the flying public worried. The perception is things are getting worse,” Cruz stated during the hearing.
In a report issued in February, the expert panel said that despite improvements made after crashes of two Boeing Max jets killed 346 people, Boeing’s approach to safety remains flawed and employees who raise concerns could be subject to pressure and retaliation.
One of the witnesses, MIT aeronautics lecturer Javier de Luis, lost his sister when a Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed in Ethiopia in 2019. De Luis commented on the disconnect between Boeing management’s words about safety and what workers observe on the factory floor.
“They hear, ‘Safety is our number one priority,’” he remarked. “What they see is that’s only true as long as your production milestones are met, and at that point it’s ‘Push it out the door as fast as you can.’”
In a discussion with workers from Boeing, de Luis revealed that he heard “there was a very real fear of payback and retribution if you held your ground. “
“They are putting out defective airplanes,” whistleblower Sam Salehpour said to members of an investigative subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
That’s the scariest six words I’ve ever heard come out of the mouth of another human being. I already have a deeply ingrained fear of flying. This little tidbit of information only further serves to justify my terror. If God wanted us in the sky, we’d have wings.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat who chairs the subcommittee, and its senior Republican, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, have asked Boeing for troves of documents going back six years. Blumenthal said at the start of the hearing that his panel planned to hold further hearings on the safety of Boeing’s planes and expected Boeing CEO David Calhoun to appear for questioning.
Neither Calhoun nor any Boeing representatives attended Wednesday’s hearings. A Boeing spokesperson said the company is cooperating with the lawmakers’ inquiry and offered to provide documents and briefings.
Boeing, of course, says that all of the claims being made about the structural integrity of the Dreamliner are not true. Two of the company’s engineering executives have come out this week and issued statements saying that in the testing and inspection of the planes — some of which are almost 12 years-old — they did not find any fatigue or cracking in the composite panels. They also stated that the material they use, which is formed from a combination of resin and carbon fibers, is almost completely impervious against fatigue that would be a constant concern with conventional aluminum fueslages.
Ed Pierson, a former Boeing manager who now directs an aviation-safety foundation, told Blumenthal’s subcommittee that Boeing failed to improve safety after the two 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019. Pierson also alleged that federal agencies have become lazy in their oversight of the company and ignored problems until the January blowout that left a gaping hole in an Alaska Airlines 787 Max flying above Oregon.
Calhoun, the CEO who will step down at the end of the year, has said many times that Boeing is taking steps to improve its manufacturing quality and safety culture. He called the Alaska Airlines incident a “watershed moment” from which a better Boeing will emerge.
Yeah, I think in the meantime, I’ll just stay right here, with feet firmly planted on the ground. If I can’t get their by car, I don’t need to go. That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.