Maria Cantwell: We must Establish ‘Proper Oversight’ Of Aircraft Manufacturing

3 months ago

On Thursday, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) delivered remarks on Boeing airplane manufacturing oversight during a Senate Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00Committee on Commerce Science and Transportation will come to order. We are having a hearing this morning with FAA

00:07administrator Michael Whitaker to

00:10discuss the FAA's oversight of aviation manufacturing

00:14Including the FAA's plans to ensure that Boeing follows through on the commitments made in its 90-day action plan

00:24What this committee and the flying public wants to know is what is the FAA doing to strengthen its oversight on

00:32The planes that we fly on every day and to make sure that they are safely built

00:37We need to know what change under your watch administrator Whitaker

00:42will restore the proper oversight to manufacturing

00:47to achieve the excellence that we want to see at Boeing and other

00:51Manufacturers and to ensure that the FAA is setting the gold standard for safety oversight a

00:58Week after the door plug incident. I sent the FAA a letter reiterating my request from a previous

01:05FAA administrator a year before for the FAA to conduct a special audit to determine whether

01:11Boeing was in compliance with FAA safety requirements for aircraft production

01:17The next day, mr

01:19Whitaker you did start an audit process and that FAA conducted hundred plus audit from January and February

01:27Of things like employee training quality control procedures records retention

01:32Both at Boeing and its suppliers is what we're here to discuss. I have to say mr

01:40administrator Whitaker the

01:42results are major safety concerns and

01:45Are very concerning to me and I think to the plying public

01:51You've identified according to news reports

01:5497 instances at Boeing and 21 instances at spirit of where the products

02:02Did not meet FAA standards

02:05We'll get into this in the Q&A

02:07Also

02:09In part of the information is that the engineers themselves had trouble responding to most basic questions about

02:17quality control policies and

02:21quality management systems

02:24We find these challenges

02:26Frustrating we need to have an FAA who is going to implement the very recommendations

02:33We heard from the ODA expert review panel who testified before this committee in April

02:40the panel's report observed that there is a disconnect between senior leadership and frontline employees on building a safety culture and

02:48Found that Boeing employees did not demonstrate of that that the overall

02:54System did not demonstrate a foundational commitment to safety

02:59To your credit administrator Whitaker

03:01You told Boeing they needed to give you a plan to reform its production quality and you gave them 90 days to do so

03:10Boeing has now delivered that plan to you and we want to ask questions and get comments from you on

03:17Where we are. I am struck by a sense of is this deja vu

03:23Are we just back here?

03:25Or can we really have a new day in creating a safety culture

03:30That is so critical for the United States to be the leaders in manufacturing in

03:362022 and

03:372023 as part of individualized FAA

03:40conducted audits of Boeing and Spirit Aero systems production lines required Boeing to correct and

03:46Identify any correct any identified problems

03:50Yet your new special audit still found problems

03:55So it begs a question about the audit process itself at the FAA and I know that's in a past

04:01Admin a past administrator, but it's still what do we need to fix in our audit process if we did in

04:092022 and 2023

04:11298

04:13Individualized audits and I will just point out that the when I sent the letter to the previous

04:18Acting administrator. He said we don't need to do an audit because we have all these specialized audits

04:22And yet we did this audit now and found out that the specialized audience didn't help us correct the problems that we see today

04:30In 2015 the FAA settle an agreement required Boeing to adopt a safety management system yet. They are still

04:37Not quite there on that commitment the same settlement agreement required Boeing to

04:43Create a regulatory compliance plan to correct all safety failings and yet we know that we have this drug

04:50Sorry plug door incidents, so the question is what can you do to change this culture?

04:58You were

05:00overwhelmingly confirmed

05:01To be the agent in charge of the FAA in this system

05:07We know that you had an overwhelming

05:10Vote in the United States Senate, so we're counting on you to be that agent of change

05:16We know that this begins at taking a hard look at the agency itself

05:21in January

05:222024 former NTSB chairman Jim Hall wrote in an op-ed to the Seattle Times

05:28Titled quote FAA's safety culture hasn't changed either in quote

05:33He wrote quote while both Boeing and FAA have issued words of assurances that they will use what?

05:39Investigations and find the fine to correct flaws in the manufacturing safety regulations and quality assurances of those industries

05:47Past pronouncements we have heard about changing their safety culture

05:52appear to be

05:53Have been lip service in quote

05:57Administrator Whitaker we must prove mr. Hall wrong

05:59We must demonstrate the FAA is a strong oversight regulator and that the agency can ensure that

06:08Manufacturers implement

06:10safety management systems

06:12Both Boeing and the FAA need a strong safety management system

06:16Not just a name only but one that actually saves lives

06:20That is why section 102 of the Aircraft Certification Safety and Accountability Act

06:25Demanded that the FAA develop a real SMS standard for aviation manufacturers

06:32So we'll have more to ask about that when we get to the Q&A

06:36But in our recently resigned signed FAA bill by President Biden

06:40We have given your agency clear direction clear resources and new tools to carry out that mission

06:47I look forward to questioning you about how we are going to achieve that

06:52Thank you for being here today, and I turn it over to ranking member Cruz for his opening statement

Maria Cantwell: We must Establish ‘Proper Oversight’ Of Aircraft Manufacturing

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