Watch Live: First Of Two Boeing Hearings Kicks Off On Capitol Hill

Update (0955ET):

Boeing faces two hearings on Capitol Hill today: 

First: Senate Commerce Committee

US Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, will convene a full committee hearing titled “FAA Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) Expert Panel Report” on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, at 10:00 AM EDT. This hearing will review the findings and recommendations from the Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) Expert Review Panel’s final report. The landmark Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act required the FAA to convene an independent expert panel to review the safety management processes and culture of ODA holders like Boeing and make recommendations to address any safety deficiencies.

Watch Live:

The whistleblower hearing begins at 1115 ET.  

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The Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, will kick off today’s first hearing at 1000 ET. This will feature a panel of aviation experts who recently released a report criticizing Boeing’s “inadequate” and “confusing” safety culture and has called for significant changes. 

The report states, “The procedures and training are complex and in a constant state of change, creating employee confusion, especially among different work sites and employee groups.” The experts noted “a lack of awareness of safety-related metrics” across all levels of the company. 

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), chair of the Senate Commerce Aviation subcommittee, said Tuesday that the Federal Aviation Administration “needs to look at what Boeing does, not just what it says it’s doing.” 

Duckworth, who will attend the first of today’s two hearings, said there is a real possibility that the FAA “is willing to use its “civil enforcement authority when appropriate” against Boeing. 

The second hearing (beginning at 1115 ET) will feature a Boeing quality engineer turned whistleblower who will testify before the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations about the alleged poor manufacturing quality of the 787 Dreamliner. 

The whistleblower is Sam Salehpour, a quality engineer at Boeing. In a report released last week, he told The New York Times about large sections of the 787’s fuselage that were improperly connected and could break down over time. 

“The entire fleet worldwide, as far as I’m concerned right now, needs attention,” Salehpour told NBC News, adding, “The attention is that you need to check your gaps and make sure that you don’t have the potential for premature failure.”

“The is going to surface some really shocking allegations about failures and safety practices and culture and light and retaliation that should shock the conscience of corporations as well as Americans,” subcommittee Chair Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told The Hill.

Blumenthal added, “The whistleblower will have the guts to show up, and I’m hoping that Dave Calhoun will as well at some point.” 

Meanwhile, Boeing CEO David Calhoun plans to step down at the end of this year. He has repeatedly stated that he wants to improve manufacturing quality and safety culture. Calhoun has not publicly said if he will attend the hearings today.