'Why haven’t you resigned?' Senators torch Boeing CEO as he apologizes for deadly failures

Outgoing Boeing CEO David Calhoun apologized Tuesday to the hundreds of families who lost loved ones in crashes of the company's 737 MAX jets — then faced scathing rebukes from senators who accused the company of placing profits over lives.

"I apologize for the grief that we have caused," Calhoun said, standing and facing a roomful of victims' relatives who packed a Capitol Hill hearing room, many of them holding posters with names and images of those who had died. "And I want you to know we are totally committed in their memory to work and focus on safety for as long as we are employed by Boeing."

A chorus of voices, cracking and trembling, were heard shouting: “We want to know how they died” and “How could you, Boeing, and the CEO, let that happen.”

Then Calhoun turned and took a pounding from a panel of lawmakers, who brought fresh whistleblower allegations that Boeing was knowingly hiding its problems from regulators.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, accused Calhoun of betraying the promises of improvement he had offered when assuming the CEO role in 2020, following two crashes linked to faulty flight-control software that killed a combined 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia. Then Boeing's problems got new scrutiny in January after the mid-flight door blowout of a 737 MAX jet over Oregon.

“For a while, some started to believe that Boeing might have changed," Blumenthal told Calhoun. “But then, this past January, the façade quite literally blew off the hollow shell that had been Boeing’s promises to the world. And once that chasm was exposed, we learned that there was virtually no bottom to the void that lay below.”

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) was even more blunt, asking Calhoun: "Why haven’t you resigned?"

“I’m sticking this through,” Calhoun said, adding: "I’m proud of every action we have taken.”

“Frankly sir, I think it's a travesty that you're still in your job,” Hawley responded.

Hawley also noted that Calhoun gets a $32.8 million salary. "What is it you get paid to do exactly?” he asked.

The panel started off the hearing by swearing Calhoun in.

Besides relatives of the victims of the Indonesia and Ethiopia crashes, Blumenthal said the audience at Tuesday's hearing included the family of John Barnett, a Boeing whistleblower whose death in March was ruled a suicide.

Calhoun’s testimony comes at a tumultuous time for the jetmaker, amid a rising tide of worries about the safety of aviation nearly 11 years after the last fatal airliner crash on U.S. soil.

Boeing is the subject of Justice Department scrutiny that may lead to a decision on whether to prosecute the company, as well as congressional investigations and Federal Aviation Administration monitoring of the company's quality and safety improvement plan. After the door plug fiasco, FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker took a tour of Boeing’s factory floor and said the operation was “very focused on production” — rather than safety— in a way that concerned him.

A major focus of the hearing centered on complaints about the way Boeing treats whistleblowers.

Blumenthal offered the case of Barnett, who worked at the company for 30 years, including time at the Charleston, South Carolina, factory where one of the company's flagship jets, the 787 Dreamliner, is made. Regulators briefly grounded the 787 more than a decade ago because of battery fires and overheating incidents, and whistleblowers have more recently alleged that the plane might be at risk for breaking apart because of improperly assembled parts.

When Barnett raised concerns about missing parts, his supervisor called him 19 times one day and 21 times another day, Blumenthal recounted. And when Barnett questioned his supervisor about the incessant calls, the supervisor responded, “I’m going to push you until you break,” the senator said.

Calhoun responded that the company has a policy of protecting whistleblowers and that he welcomes bad news from his employees.

“I often, often, cite and reward the people who bring issues forward even if they have huge consequences on our company and our production levels, etc.,” Calhoun said. He said his leadership team also surveys employees to make sure they feel empowered to speak up.

Calhoun added that the company has “fired people and disciplined people” for retaliation against whistleblowers, though he couldn’t answer how many employees have been fired for that reason. He said privacy concerns prevent him from providing specifics.

The CEO also offered a distinction between January's door-plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight and other recent troubles on Boeing jets, such as rough behavior in the air and reports of possibly shoddy titanium being included in some of its aircraft.

“Alaska was a manufacturing defect,” Calhoun said. "I’m not aware of any others that were.”

Other whistleblower reports, elevated by Blumenthal’s subcommittee and released before the hearing, have included accusations that the jetmaker is improperly handling "non-conforming" parts that are either defective or lack proper paperwork — some of which are likely being installed on planes — and has tried to cut quality inspections.

One whistleblower, Boeing quality assurance investigator Sam Mohawk, said the company is not properly documenting, tracking and storing non-conforming parts and that he was told by a supervisor to hide such evidence from the FAA, according to the subcommittee. He also said the company is retaliating against him for flagging such systemic issues.

It’s not clear what concrete actions Tuesday's hearing might lead to. Congress has already passed its must-pass aviation legislation for the year — a multiyear FAA reauthorization — lessening hope that legislation to address Boeing’s shortcomings could move before the end of this Congress.

After the hearing ended, Blumenthal said he plans to continue the inquiry by asking the airlines come to testify and by requesting more documents from Boeing.

Meanwhile, people who have lost family members in the plane crashes say Boeing has yet to be fully held to account.

Chris Moore, who lost his daughter, Danielle, 24, on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, said he wants accountability for Boeing employees, particularly the executives and engineers.

“They knew that that plane was noncompliant,” Moore said after the hearing, later adding he “would like to see people go to jail. All the engineers who were involved.”

“In essence, they killed my daughter,” he said.