On Wednesday, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg appeared before the Senate Commerce Committee to detail the steps the company has taken to enhance its focus on safety. The hearing, titled “Safety First: Restoring Boeing’s Status as a Great American Manufacturer,”” was Mr. Ortberg’s first appearance before Congress since becoming CEO in August of last year.  

Mr. Ortberg came in as CEO as part of a broader leadership shake-up at Boeing last year. The company’s multiyear efforts to navigate and respond to two fatal crashes of Boeing 737 MAX jetliners—Lion Air Flight 610 on October 29, 2018, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019—was undermined by in January 2024 when a door plug on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 tore off from the fuselage during flight. The incident on a nearly new Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft led to findings from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) indicating continued safety issues at Boeing. Though no fatal injuries occurred, “the incident produced fresh doubt about Boeing’s ability to safely build planes,” said Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). 

The hearing in large part demonstrated a bipartisan interest in giving Ortberg an opportunity to convince the American public that under his leadership, Boeing was turning a page on the errors of the past that had undermined safety and was “restoring Boeing’s status as a great American manufacturer” as the hearing title declared. Ortberg rose to this challenge, taking responsibility for past safety lapses, acknowledging the company had made “serious missteps” in the past that were “unacceptable,” and describing in his testimony the “sweeping changes to the people, processes, and overall structure” at Boeing to advance safety. 

The committee members made clear that they shared Boeing’s interest in restoring public confidence in Boeing and ascertaining that the new leadership at the company would put the company on sound footing. The importance of Boeing’s economic competitiveness was emphasized repeatedly in references to jobs and local suppliers dependent on Boeing in each Commerce Committee members’ states. The point was further punctuated by the announcement from Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) at the hearing that Boeing is in the process of acquiring Spirit AeroSystems – the largest private employer in Kansas.  

As Ortberg’s testimony noted, Boeing is also the largest exporter in the country, contributing $84 billion annually to the U.S. economy and supporting 1.8 million American jobs. Chairman Cruz made the connection most succinctly declaring that “our country is better off economically… and our nation is stronger when Boeing is strong.” 

In concluding his opening statement, Cruz stated that “President Trump is taking great strides to bring back American manufacturing. I very much hope that Boeing is part of that renaissance.” 

Production of 737 MAX planes 

In January 2024, following the discovery that uninstalled bolts led to the mid-air separation of the door plug and the rapid depressurization of the cabin on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) capped Boeing’s production levels of 737 MAX planes to 38 planes per month. At the hearing on Wednesday, Ortberg noted that Boeing is currently producing planes below that rate limit. He noted several times that he is not making commitments to increase the rate of production to 38 planes per month until the company’s performance indicators indicate they are ready to do so safely.  

“I’ve not provided financial guidance to Wall Street for the performance of the company, I’ve not provided guidance on how many aircraft we’re going to deliver, I’ve gone and gotten financial coverage so that we can allow our production system to heal,”  Ortberg said. “I’m not pressuring the team to go fast. I’m pressuring the team to do it right.” 

The Senators expressed appreciation for Ortberg’s commitment to safety but some also expressed the importance of Boeing being able to eventually increase the delivery of airplanes and outcompete competitors in China and Europe.  

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) expressed concern about the production rate and delay in delivery of planes, noting that Boeing is currently delivering planes 2 years behind schedule, which could impact national security and commercial operations. But in response to her query on “when do you anticipate to be able to offer some confidence to the public on [timely delivery],” Ortberg declared clearly that “we won’t ramp up production if the performance isn’t indicating a stable production system.” While he expressed hope of reaching that stability and achieving or exceeding the 38 planes per month rate later this year, he also acknowledged doubt that Boeing will ever “get to the point where [they] recover all those deliveries.” 

Updating Safety Standards  

Following the crashes of the 737 MAX aircraft and the grounding of the planes by FAA in 2020, Congress passed the “Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act” which among other changes to safety practices at FAA, required FAA to revise the organization delegation authorization (ODA) process, with an emphasis on oversight and accountability, and further FAA to review the ODA program for Boeing specifically. The Act also required the FAA to establish standards for a mandatory Safety Management System (SMS). Nonetheless, Boeing has continued operating under a voluntary SMS, and faced critiques of their SMS in a report issued by an expert panel convened per the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act.  

Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA) raised the issue of Boeing’s Safety management system (SMS) in questioning at the hearing, asking Mr. Ortberg to commit to moving to a mandatory system in compliance with FAA standards. Ortberg acknowledged that many gaps in their safety management system had been identified in reviews and audits following the door plug incident on the Alaska Airlines flight. Boeing is addressing those gaps through the comprehensive Safety and Quality Plan that Boeing has submitted to the FAA. At the hearing on Wednesday, Ortberg said he was “absolutely committed to a mandatory safety management system” and would like to have it in place by October of this year. 

The issue of whistleblower protections and ending retaliatory practices toward whistleblowers was also raised by numerous Senators, including Marsha Blackburn (R,-N). Boeing has been accused of sidelining prior whistleblowers who had alleged that the company was prioritizing speed and earnings over safety. Ortberg repeatedly affirmed his commitment to listening to and protecting whistleblowers at the company. 

Whistleblowers have also alleged more recently that manufacturing errors with electrical wiring may have contributed to the crashes of the 737 MAX aircraft. In questioning on that topic from Sen. Cruz, Ortberg stated that he has not discussed the issue of manufacturing defects specifically and he is not aware of electrical issues that contributed to the crash. 

Continued oversight challenges at FAA  

In October of last year, the USDOT Office of the Inspector General released their audit report conducted at the joint bipartisan request of the House T&I Committee and Senate Commerce Committee leadership. That report found 16 areas of weakness in FAA’s ability to identify and resolve production issues. Among other issues, the OIG found that FAA’s compliance system is unable to determine whether repetitive noncompliance has occurred, and that FAA has not ensured that Boeing and its suppliers can produce parts that conform to the approved designs. The nonconformance to design standards was one causal element of the MAX jetliner crashes, as Boeing had “knowingly and repeatedly produced 737 MAX aircraft with nonfunctioning angle-of-attack (AOA) disagree alerts in blatant violation of the plane’s approved design” as Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) noted at the hearing.   

Sen. Duckworth raised the question of FAA’s oversight authority delegation in relation to the OIG report on FAA’s continued oversight challenges. Duckworth asked that Ortberg commit to not requesting or accepting delegation authority from FAA until the agency implemented all 16 recommendations from the OIG report. He was not willing to make the commitment, noting that “delegation is a very important part of our business process” but committing to make improvements where identified and needed. 

Plea Deal 

In January 2021, Boeing entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement to resolve criminal charges for conspiracy to defraud the FAA in connection with the FAA’s evaluation of Boeing’s 737 MAX airplane and the flawed flight control system that investigators blame in part for causing the MAX crashes. However in May of 2024, DOJ found that Boeing had breached its DPA by failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.  Following this finding, in July 2024, DOJ reported that they had reached an agreement in principle on the terms of a proposed plea agreement, which was submitted to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Families of the victims of the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 urged the Court to reject the deal. On December 5, 2024, the Court rejected the proposed plea agreement, and just last week the Court set the date for the trial for Monday, June 23, 2025. 

At the hearing, Ortberg told senators that the company is in talks with the Justice Department in hopes of reaching a revised plea agreement to resolve this criminal fraud charge.  

Army ADSB-Out Off Operations 

Some of the harshest words at the hearing were reserved for the Army, a representative of which also appeared before the Commerce Committee last week. The Army has apparently stonewalled repeated bipartisan requests from the Commerce Committee leadership for an unredacted copy of their memo entitled “ADSB-Out Off Operations in the National Airspace” despite the NTSB indicating that the army has permission to share the memo. Sen Cruz opened the hearing with the statement “fully expect that should the army continue to refuse to provide the internal memo, this committee will exercise its full authorities to compel its production. The expression of frustration with the Department of Defense and the outstanding questions on their operations without ADSB-Out in the national airspace were reiterated by Ranking Member Cantwell and others on the committee. 

Tariffs 

The hearing took place prior to President Trump’s Wednesday afternoon announcement of broad sweeping tariffs, however the question of how it would affect Boeing and the company’s workforce and suppliers in states like New Mexico was raised by Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM). While Ortberg couldn’t answer definitively prior to the tariff details being released, he referred to the issue as one of “outsized importance to us” and also noted that 80 percent of the airplanes that Boeing delivers are outside of the U.S. so “free trade is very important to us.” 

The challenge that tariffs would pose to Boeing was underscored by market reactions in the day following the hearing and tariff announcement. While Boeing prices ticked up a small amount during and after the hearing as Ortberg received praise for his responsive and reassuring testimony, that small gain was more than erased following the announcement of tariffs. At the time of this writing, Boeing’s share prices were on track to end the week nearly 20 percent lower than where they had started the week.