WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0Boeing\u00a0CEO Kelly Ortberg told senators on Wednesday that he\u2019s happy with the company\u2019s\u00a0progress\u00a0improving manufacturing and safety practices following several accidents, including a near\u00a0catastrophe\u00a0last year.<\/p>\n
Ortberg faced questioning from the Senate Commerce Committee about how the company will ensure that it doesn\u2019t repeat past accidents or manufacturing defects, in his first hearing since he became CEO last August, tasked with turning the manufacturer around.<\/p>\n
Sen. Ted Cruz, R.-Texas, the committee\u2019s chairman, said he wants Boeing to succeed and invited company managers and factory workers to report to him their opinions on its turnaround plan. \u201cConsider my door open,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ortberg acknowledged the company still has more to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoeing has made serious missteps in recent years \u2014 and it is unacceptable. In response, we have made sweeping changes to the people, processes, and overall structure of our company,\u201d Ortberg said in his testimony. \u201cWhile there is still work ahead of us, these profound changes are underpinned by the deep commitment from all of us to the safety of our products and services.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg testifies on Capitol Hill on April 2.<\/span>Brendan Smialowski \/ AFP \u2013 Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n Boeing executives have worked for years to put the lasting impact of two fatal crashes of its best-selling Max plane behind it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ortberg said Boeing is in discussions with the Justice Department for a revised plea agreement stemming from a federal fraud charge in the development of Boeing\u2019s best-selling 737 Maxes. The previous plea deal, reached last July, was later\u00a0rejected by a federal judge, who\u00a0last month set a trial date for June 23\u00a0if a new deal isn\u2019t reached.<\/p>\n Boeing had agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to\u00a0defraud\u00a0the U.S. government, pay up to $487.2 million and install a corporate monitor at the company for three years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in the process right now of going back with the DOJ and coming up with an alternate agreement,\u201d Ortberg said during the hearing. \u201cI want this resolved as fast as anybody. We\u2019re still in discussions and hopefully we\u2019ll have a new agreement here soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked by Sen. Maria Cantwell, the ranking Democrat on the committee, whether he had an issue with having a corporate monitor, Ortberg replied: \u201cI don\u2019t personally have a problem, no.\u201d<\/p>\n Ortberg and other Boeing executives have recently outlined improvements across the manufacturer\u2019s production lines, such as reducing defects and risks from so-called traveled works, or doing tasks out of sequence, in recent months, as well as wins like a\u00a0contract worth more than $20 billion\u00a0to build the United States\u2019 next generation fighter jet.<\/p>\n But lawmakers and regulators have maintained heightened scrutiny on the company, a top U.S. exporter.<\/p>\n \u201cBoeing has been a great American manufacturer and all of us sho<\/em>uld want to see it thrive,\u201d Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican and chairman of the committee, said in a statement in February announcing the hearing. \u201cGiven Boeing\u2019s past missteps and problems, the flying public deserves to hear what changes are being made to rehabilitate the company\u2019s tarnished reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0Federal Aviation Administration\u00a0last year capped Boeing\u2019s production of its 737 Max planes at 38 a month following the January 2024 door plug blowout. The agency plans to keep that limit in place, though Boeing is producing below that level.<\/p>\n Ortberg said at the hearing Wednesday that the company could work up to production rate of 38 Max planes a month or even higher sometime this year, but said Boeing wouldn\u2019t push it if the production line isn\u2019t stable.<\/p>\n Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau\u00a0said at a Senate hearing last week that the agency\u2019s oversight of the company \u201cextends to ongoing monitoring of\u00a0Boeing\u2019s manufacturing practices, maintenance procedures, and software updates.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0Boeing\u00a0CEO Kelly Ortberg told senators on Wednesday that he\u2019s happy with the company\u2019s\u00a0progress\u00a0improving manufacturing and safety practices following several accidents, including a near\u00a0catastrophe\u00a0last year. Ortberg faced questioning from the Senate Commerce Committee about how the company will ensure that it doesn\u2019t repeat past accidents or manufacturing defects, in his first hearing since he became […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":16512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}