Boeing CEO apologizes to families of crash victims at a Senate hearing

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun (pictured) apologized to crash victim's families at a Senate hearing Tuesday before lawmakers roasted the executive for his role in the airline's turbulent descent. 'I'm deeply sorry…my whole team at Boeing, everybody worldwide past and present,' Calhoun told the audience in the crowded Senate room.

Onlookers held up portraits of victims who had died on Boeing planes, and there were too many faces to count. Boeing has made headlines in recent years for broken landing gears, doors popping off mid-flight and multiple sudden system failures leading to catastrophic crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019 that resulted in scores of deaths.

The company's repeated failure to fix the plentiful problems has led to skepticism on Capitol Hill and lawmakers torched Calhoun for his role in the airline's downfall Tuesday. 'It is a moment of reckoning for Boeing,' Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the subcommittee's chairman told the Boeing CEO, warning him that he has a dozen whistleblowers ready to dish dirt on the American airplane giant. On Monday, the subcommittee released a report with explosive allegations from a Boeing quality insurance inspector, Sam Mohawk, who said the company installed faulty parts onto planes and that he was later told by his managers to conceal the evidence from government regulators.

Mohawk's allegations are just the latest in a deluge of whistleblower complaints against Boeing this year. But the whistleblower's revelations seems to be an aside as during the hearing, lawmakers aimed their blows at Boeing's CEO.

'Mr. Calhoun, let's put it very bluntly, 346 people died because of a faulty control system, the MCAS system, that Boeing knew was going to cause a crash at some point,' Blumenthal said. 'I would not say the latter part of that sentence,' Calhoun retorted. 'There was a judgement made by ourselves our design engineers and the certification process that that could never happen, but it did.' 'Now you are going to make me really angry,' Blumenthal responded, visibly looking upset by the CEO's response. 'Boeing was charged with defrauding the United States of America and the prosecution was deferred because Boeing paid a fine, but no individual was held accountable,' Blumenthal stated. 'Senator, it's wrong for me to re-investigate an investigation that was thorough, thorough, thorough,' Calhoun responded.

Shouldn't individuals who are still at Boeing be held accountable, Blumenthal asked. 'Senator Blumenthal we are responsible,' Calhoun admitted after Blumenthal's temper flared. Later, Republican Josh Hawley, R-Mo., incredulously asked the CEO how much he gets paid to oversee such disasters at Boeing. 'What is it you get paid to do exactly,' Hawley asked. 'I get paid to run the Boeing company,' Calhoun shot back.

Hawley then asked if Calhoun's job responsibilities and nearly $33 million dollar per year salary are based on transparency and safety. 'You're under investigation for falsifying 787 inspection records, Boeing is under criminal investigation for the Alaska Airlines flight, you were investigated by DOJ for criminal conspiracy to defraud the FAA,' Hawley said. 'This is all under your tenure. Doesn't sound like a lot of transparency to me,' the Republican told Calhoun.

Boeing and Alaska Airlines are facing separate criminal probes after a door blew out from a plane in January. Both have denied wrongdoing. 'I am proud of having taken the job,' Calhoun told Hawley. 'I am proud of our safety record.' 'Behind you the folks are showing the people who are the victims of your safety record,' the Missouri Republican said. 'I think we can all see them and I think the American public, when they fear to get on their airplanes, they understand your safety record.' 'And I think its a travesty you are still in your job,' the Republican concluded.

During the hearing Calhoun reiterated the steps taken by the company in recent months in response to the January Alaska Airlines flight. The incident prompted a frantic all-hands-on-deck meeting with C-suite staffers in the days after the door dislodged mid-flight. Further, Boeing paid $61 million to Alaska Airlines in March to compensate them for the disaster. 'In our factories and in our supply chain, we took immediate action to ensure the specific circumstances that led to this accident would not happen again,' the CEO testified.

Boeing has said it reworked employee incentives, replaced senior staff on its commercial plane unit and is searching for new suppliers to address some of its problems. Still, the lawmakers did not seem to buy the CEO's answers. 'Instead of asking what has caused Boeing's safety culture to erode, you and your colleagues in the C-suite have deflected blame, looked the other way, and catered to your shareholders instead,' Blumenthal said. 'Boeing needs to stop thinking about the next earning call, and start thinking about the next generation.'

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