STORY: Boeing CEO grilled by lawmakers in Senate hearing over safety
SHOOTING TIME: June 18, 2024
DATELINE: June 19, 2024
LENGTH: 0:01:39
LOCATION: Washington
CATEGORY: POLITICS

SHOTLIST:
1. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, U.S. Democratic Senator
2. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, U.S. Democratic Senator
3. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): JOSH HAWLEY, U.S. Republican Senator
4. SOUNDBITE 4 (English): DAVE CALHOUN, Boeing CEO
5. SOUNDBITE 5 (English): RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, U.S. Democratic Senator
6. various of the hearing

STORYLINE:

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun was grilled by U.S. lawmakers in a Senate hearing on Tuesday over the air giant's growing safety and quality control crises.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, U.S. Democratic Senator
"It's not enough for Boeing to shrug its shoulders and say, well, mistakes happen. This is not an industry where it's okay to cut corners, to reduce inspections, to take shortcuts, and rely on broken parts that happen to be sitting around."

Among the audience are families of victims of the two crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people, involving Boeing's 737 Max. Many came holding posters of loved ones who lost their lives in those tragedies.
   
Blumenthal also mentioned the incident in January when a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 shortly after takeoff. 
   
SOUNDBITE 2 (English): RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, U.S. Democratic Senator
"Some sort of believe that Boeing might have changed but then this past January, the facade literally blew off the hollow shell that had been Boeing's promises to the world."

Calhoun, who took charge in January 2020 following the two deadly crashes, defended the company's actions to try to improve manufacturing quality and restore its damaged safety reputation in recent years.

Senators also questioned the Boeing CEO over the company's treatment of whistleblowers.
   
SOUNDBITE 3 (English): JOSH HAWLEY, U.S. Republican Senator
"We've had multiple whistleblowers come before this committee and allege that Boeing is cutting every possible corner on quality and safety not just in the past, but now. They've alleged that you've eliminated safety inspections that there are fewer inspectors doing quality inspections out there. They alleged that when they raised quality issues and concerns, they were reassigned, they were retaliated against, they were physically threatened."

In his response, Calhoun said the company has increased quality inspectors "significantly."

SOUNDBITE 4 (English): DAVE CALHOUN, Boeing CEO
"We have increased our quality inspectors significantly."
   
Calling on Boeing to change "a broken safety culture," Blumenthal said the plane-maker "needs to stop thinking about the next earnings call and start thinking about the next generation."

SOUNDBITE 5 (English): RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, U.S. Democratic Senator
"We all on this panel want Boeing to do well, and succeed. But that requires a course correction, it requires a correction of that broken safety culture. Boeing needs to stop thinking about the next earnings call and start thinking about the next generation."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Washington D.C.
(XHTV)