During Tuesday’s Senate Homeland Security Committee, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) gave opening remarks recognizing the victims of Boeing crashes and whistleblowers and about safety issues at Boeing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00This hearing of the Permanent Subcommittee
00:05on Investigation will come to order.
00:09We welcome our witnesses and my colleagues.
00:14And I would like to welcome in particular some of the members
00:20of the audience who are here today.
00:23Michael Sumo, Nadia Milleran, Adnan Sumo,
00:28they are the parents and brother of Samia Rose Sumo.
00:32If you want to stand, you're welcome to with your photographs.
00:38Also here are Chris Moore, Clarice Moore, and David Moore,
00:43the parents and brother of Danielle Moore.
00:49Zipporah Curia is here today.
00:51She's the daughter of Joseph Curia.
00:54Catherine Bertay, she is the mother of Camille Bertay.
01:00Abadou Amiha is also here, his wife, Sarah.
01:06Gabray Michael was the cabin supervisor
01:10on Ethiopia Flight 302.
01:14We remember them and the other 341 victims
01:19of the unspeakable tragedies that occurred
01:22when two airlines crashed in 2018-2019.
01:29I also want to recognize the family of John Barnett,
01:34his mother, Vicki Stokes, and brother, Rodney Barnett,
01:40a Boeing whistleblower who committed suicide
01:43under the immense pressure that the company put on him
01:48for raising safety claims.
01:50They are with us today.
01:54To all of you, thank you for having the strength
01:59and courage to be with us,
02:02and we are deeply sorry for your losses.
02:06I wanted to begin by introducing you
02:11because the issues before us today
02:15have real human consequences.
02:18Life and death resolves, not just abstract numbers
02:26and hypotheticals, abstract issues,
02:28they are a matter of life and death.
02:33For people who travel by air or work for Boeing,
02:40and this hearing is a moment of reckoning.
02:47It is about a company, once an iconic company
02:52known for engineering excellence and product prowess
02:57that somehow lost its way.
03:03Five years ago, 346 innocent people lost their lives
03:08in not one but two preventable tragedies.
03:11We learned those tragedies were caused by intentional decisions
03:17to put production speed over safety and profits,
03:23stock price over people.
03:27In the wake of those tragedies,
03:28Boeing promised to turn itself around.
03:33Planes were grounded, executives were dismissed,
03:37promises were made.
03:39What we've seen since from whistleblowers
03:43is that, in fact, the manufacturing issues,
03:50the retaliation against whistleblowers,
03:52nonconforming parts, quality inspections skipped,
03:58and issues concealed from the FAA, evidence hidden,
04:04all have continued.
04:07And there is mounting evidence
04:10that the Deferred Prosecution Agreement
04:12concluded in 2021
04:15with the United States Department of Justice
04:17has been violated.
04:18In fact, there is near overwhelming evidence,
04:21in my view as a former prosecutor,
04:24that prosecution should be pursued.
04:30When you were named as Boeing's chief executive, Mr. Calhoun,
04:38we were told that you were the right person to correct course
04:42and you committed to, quote,
04:44strengthen Boeing's safety culture
04:47and rebuild trust with our customers, regulators, suppliers,
04:52and the flying public.
04:53And for a while,
04:57some sort of believed that Boeing might have changed.
05:00But then this past January,
05:02the facade literally blew off the hollow shell
05:07that had been Boeing's promises to the world.
05:10Once that chasm was exposed,
05:13we learned that there was virtually no bottom
05:16to the void that lay below.
05:18PSI started this investigation
05:20after current Boeing quality engineer Sam Salipur
05:24came forward to disclose alleged shortcuts
05:27in the production of 787 and 777 aircraft
05:31that could pose catastrophic safety risks over time,
05:36fastening of the fuselage to other parts.
05:40Mr. Salipur courageously recounted
05:44how he was isolated and transferred
05:47for refusing to stay silent about his concerns.
05:52Our investigation has proceeded since we first heard from him,
05:55and we have heard from many others.
05:57We have more than a dozen whistleblowers by this point,
06:02and we encourage more to come forward.
06:07We've collected that evidence.
06:08We've learned that Boeing's problems go deeper
06:10than one whistleblower or one incident
06:13or one line of aircraft.
06:16A mechanic in South Carolina told us about how
06:19when he and his colleagues raised concerns about directives
06:23to not follow policies and procedures,
06:25quote, we were ordered to just do it
06:29and told there were hundreds of others
06:31waiting in line outside the gate wanting our jobs.
06:36Another whistleblower from Washington State
06:39has brought us new evidence.
06:42Very recently, a Boeing employee, Sam Mohawk,
06:48quality assurance inspector in Renton, Washington,
06:52informed us that Boeing is improperly documenting,
06:56I'm quoting, non-conforming parts,
07:00possibly using them and installing them in airplane.
07:04There are parts that are damaged
07:07or defective out of specification.
07:11He said that he's been told by his superiors
07:13to conceal this evidence from the FAA
07:17and that he is being retaliated against the fact
07:19he's been threatened with termination.
07:24These are chilling allegations.
07:27They echo concerns raised by others like John Barnett,
07:31who made similar claims about practices
07:34at Boeing 787 manufacturing plant in South Carolina
07:39and by Merle Myers, who came forward last month
07:43with additional related claims
07:45about a different plant in Washington.
07:52This new evidence is detailed in a memorandum
07:55that I shared with my colleagues,
07:59PSI members earlier today.
08:02Without objection, I'd like to ask
08:04that this memorandum be entered into the record.
08:09Mr. Calhoun, you were brought in to the company as CEO.
08:15You had been on the board to turn this company around.
08:20You and your board of directors
08:21have a duty to your shareholders,
08:24but they will be deeply ill-served
08:27if you fail to correct course
08:30to confront the root cause of this broken safety culture.
08:37You have a duty to demand the highest safety standards
08:43and insist that every installation is properly documented
08:48and ensure that speak up means, in fact, speak up,
08:52not shut up, as it is meant all too often.
08:57Boeing needs to stop thinking about the next earning call
09:02and start thinking about the next generation.
09:09We're here because we want Boeing to succeed.
09:12Boeing needs to succeed for the sake of the jobs it provides,
09:17for the sake of local economies it supports,
09:20for the sake of the American traveling public,
09:23for the sake of our military.
09:28It's not enough for Boeing to shrug its shoulders
09:34and say, well, mistakes happen.
09:36This is not an industry where it's okay to cut corners,
09:41to reduce inspections, to take shortcuts
09:44and rely on broken parts that happen to be sitting around.
09:48This is not an industry where it's okay
09:49to rush planes out the door
09:52because you need to meet a quarterly sales target.
09:56I feel you know all of what I am saying,
10:00but it's not enough to say it.
10:04Boeing has to do it.
10:05Boeing has to live it.
10:10In a country where air travel literally was invented
10:14with the ingenuity and exceptional American engineers
10:18of Boeing, where still the best workforce
10:25in the world in the aviation industry
10:27continues to come to work every day and do its best,
10:32there's absolutely no reason where we should not
10:36be the home of the preeminent airplane manufacturer
10:41in the world.
10:43Boeing is making some leadership changes,
10:45but they look more like management musical chairs,
10:49moving the same people to different roles
10:51within the company, people who may have been responsible
10:55and should be held accountable.
10:58The Department of Justice will conclude its investigation
11:01and make its independent decision
11:03about whether to prosecute.
11:07But for Boeing, regardless of that decision,
11:13it is a moment of reckoning and an opportunity
11:17to change a broken safety culture.
11:23With that, I turn to the Ranking Member.