Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun faced off against an intense line of questioning from US senators on June 18, 2024, on the company’s safety culture.
“This hearing is a moment of reckoning,” said US Senator Richard Blumenthal at the permanent subcommittee hearing. “A company known for engineering excellence and product prowess that somehow lost its way.”
The permanent subcommittee on investigations had launched an inquiry back in March, following the Flight 1282 incident where a door plug blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight.
Senators claimed Boeing was putting “stock price over people”, with senator Josh Hawley attacking Calhoun’s $33 million pay package, claiming that he is “strip mining” Boeing in favour of profit. Blumenthal, addressing Calhoun, added: “You and your board of directors have a duty to your shareholders but they will be deeply ill served if you fail to confront the root cause of this broken safety culture.” He added that the Boeing should “stop thinking about the next earnings call” and prioritise its future stability.
“We’ve heard those concerns loud and clear,” said Calhoun. “Our culture is far from perfect, but we are taking action and making progress. We understand the gravity, and we are committed to moving forward with transparency and accountability, while elevating employee engagement.”
Calhoun added, “our determination to bring [Spirit AeroSystems] back into the Boeing fold is definitely a vote in favour of vertical integration”. He added that the acquisition of the forward fuselage, nacelles and struts manufacturer would ensure a tighter grip on safety and quality. Spirit AeroSystems confirmed acquisition discussions between the company and Boeing back in March.
In addition, Calhoun said Boeing had dedicated $1bn to the implementation of its renewed training plan. He added that with trained staff, “the more skills they accumulate, the better they’ll get paid.” When asked if the allocated $1bn was part of this pay increase, Calhoun said it would not.
Increasing its workforce skillset has been a bigger issue for Boeing post-COVID with a skills shortage and aging workforce impacting the entire aviation industry.
“As we try to respond to unbelievable demand for airplanes, we have a supply constraint that is very real and it is not resolved today,” said Calhoun. “The most important thing we can do – and we’ve done it in a few large instances but not have to train ourselves to do it in small instances meaning every employee – is that if a part is not there on time or if a part is non-conforming, we will stop the line. So much of this relates to an untrained workforce, it’s all about that.”
Calhoun is set to depart his role as CEO at the end of the year, with Boeing’s board of directors currently searching for his successor. Some have questioned whether Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) CEO Stephanie Pope would assume the role, who assumed her current position in March. Blumenthal said: “Boeing is making some leadership changes, but they look more like management musical chairs, moving the same people to different roles within the company; people who may have been responsible and should be held accountable.”
Calhoun said: “We try to select people who know a lot about airplanes. We are in an industry where domain expertise matters a lot and so we prefer to choose from within but also to best match the skillsets with the opportunity at hand.”
Emirates president Tim Clark had said earlier in June that Boeing would need “very strong leadership” with a broad experience in aerospace engineering to salvage its reputation and quality control issues.
When asked if Boeing employees had been fired for retaliating against whistleblowers, Calhoun said he couldn’t give an accurate figure. However, he said, “I know it happens.”
The hearing was attended by families of the victims of both the Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashes on 737 aircraft in 2018 and 2019 respectively, brandishing images of their lost loved ones at Calhoun. The CEO stood and faced the families to apologise. “We are deeply sorry for your losses,” he said. “Nothing is more important than the safety of the people who step on board our airplanes.”
Blumenthal said the subcommittee would look forward to hearing further information from Calhoun as well as from airlines in the future.
Boeing’s shares fell nearly 2% following the hearing.
Senate grills Boeing CEO Calhoun on its safety culture
