Boeing CEO David Calhoun faces new congressional hearing as planemaker flounders
Boeing's CEO defended his record amid accusations that the company had put its financial health over the safety of its planes, asserting that new policies had been put in place to correct past issues.
Boeing's CEO defended his record amid accusations that the company had put its financial health over the safety of its planes, asserting that new policies had been put in place to correct past issues.
At a Senate hearing Tuesday, Dave Calhoun, who in March said he planned to step down as CEO by the end of the year, said he did not plan to resign even as he faced blistering criticism about the company's safety performance.
"I'm sticking this through," Calhoun said in response to a question from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., about why he had not yet stepped down as the company amid fresh new of concerns about its practices — just three years after it agreed to a settlement with the Justice Department over its role in two crashes that killed 364 people.
While the immediate reason for Tuesday's hearing was the blowout of a door panel on an Alaska Airlines flight in January, subsequent revelations about Boeing, its safety and maintenance practices and especially its handling of whistleblowers have led to fresh concerns about the company's culture.
“This past January, the facade quite literally blew off the hollow shell that had been Boeing’s promises to the world,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in prepared remarks. “And once that chasm was exposed, we learned that there was virtually no bottom to the void that lay below.”
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