Jun. 17—HARTFORD — Aircraft giant Boeing has a "systematically broken safety culture," that U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal hopes to put under a public microscope on Tuesday when the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations questions company officials, receives new testimony from whistle-blowers and speaks with families who lost loved ones in crashes involving the company's 737 Max 8 passenger jet.
Speaking in the State Capitol in advance of a committee meeting in Washington on Tuesday, Blumenthal said he expects the congressional committee to grill Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun with detailed inquiries about the company's failures following two crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. Earlier this year a hatch door failed and blew open mid-flight on an Alaska Airlines plane earlier this year.
"There was a time when Boeing was the aircraft manufacturer in the world," Blumenthal said during a late-morning news conference in the Legislative Office Building about a hour before he was to fly from Bradley International Airport to Washington for Congress' work week. "There was a saying 'If you're going, take Boeing.' Well, Boeing has lost its luster, and indeed its reputation for excellence, as a result of self-inflicted wounds. Over the years it has sacrificed quality and safety for profits and speed of production. In effect, it has prioritized the next earning call over the reliability and responsibility for its product."
In recent days a Southwest Airlines flight sustained damage after it lost control. Blumenthal said he expects a new whistle-blower to emerge with more details of "egregious" safety problems.
"I am flying," Blumenthal said. "I think air travel is safe, but the risk must be eliminated or at least reduced to the lowest possible level. When all is said and done, safety has to come first. We need accountability. We have given Boeing plenty of chances to correct itself. This investigation concerns management accountability that must be demanded because the safety of the flying public is at-stake."
Blumenthal, who is chairman of the Senate panel noted that earlier this year the committee heard testimony on defective manufacturing and allegations of company retaliation against Boeing employees, both past and present.
"What these repeated incidents show is a systematically broken safety culture," he said. "People failing to pay attention to non-conforming parts that should be rejected. Not used. To quality inspections that need to be done by someone independent, not by working next to the mechanic doling the work. There are practices and culture that encourage reporting of safety issues. Boeing told people to shut up, not speak up."
He said the company, which is losing market share to the Netherlands-based Airbus, its chief competition in the global airplane market, said that simply changing executives is not the answer to Boeing's problems.
Connor Greenwood of Boeing's media relations unit, said that Calhoun and other company officials are eager to appear before the Senate panel.
"We welcome the opportunity to appear before the subcommittee to share the actions we have taken, and will continue to take, to strengthen safety and quality and ensure that commercial air travel remains the safest form of transportation," Greenwood said in a statement. "We are committed to fostering a culture of accountability and transparency while upholding the highest standards of safety and quality."
Blumenthal described the statement as "corporate boilerplate that needs to be pierced" with committee questions on specifics.
"As a statement of principle, it's fine," Blumenthal said. "It's what any public relations operation would produce, but we need more than just words. We need action. Tomorrow, David Calhoun will be making similar statements, but I'm going to be demanding more than just rhetoric. Overall, what we'll have tomorrow is a moment of reckoning."
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