U.S. lawmakers pressed Boeing’s chief executive on June 18 about the company’s plans to fix its manufacturing problems and its willingness to heed whistleblowers’ warnings, while relatives of people who died in two crashes of Boeing 737 Max jetliners were in the room to remind him of what was at stake.

CEO David Calhoun appeared before the Senate investigations subcommittee, which is chaired by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a Boeing critic. Blumenthal opened the hearing by recognizing the relatives of the crash victims and the family of a Boeing whistleblower who died by suicide earlier this year.

Also read: The controversy over Boeing’s bestselling 737 MAX and its impact in India | Data

“This hearing is a moment of reckoning,” the senator said. “It’s about a company, a once iconic company, that somehow lost its way.”

Mr. Calhoun’s appearance before Congress was the first by a high-ranking Boeing official since a panel blew out of a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. No one was seriously injured in the incident, but it raised fresh concerns about the company’s best-selling commercial aircraft.

Mr. Calhoun sat at the witness table and fidgeted with his eyeglasses as Blumenthal spoke. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., thanked the CEO for coming to face “tough questions.” Before giving his prepared opening statement, Calhoun stood and faced the people in the audience holding poster-sized photos of some of the 346 people who died in the 2018 and 2019 crashes.

“I apologize for the grief that we have caused,” he said.

Hours before Mr. Calhoun arrived on Capitol Hill, the Senate panel released a 204-page report with new allegations from a whistleblower who said he worries that “nonconforming” parts — ones that could be defective or aren’t properly documented — are going into 737 Max jets.

Sam Mohawk, a quality assurance investigator at the 737 assembly plant near Seattle, claims Boeing hid evidence of the situation after the Federal Aviation Administration informed the company a year ago that it would inspect the plant.

“Once Boeing received such a notice, it ordered the majority of the (nonconfirming) parts that were being stored outside to be moved to another location,” Mohawk said, according to the report. “Approximately 80% of the parts were moved to avoid the watchful eyes of the FAA inspectors.”

The parts were later moved back or lost, Mohawk said. They included rudders, wing flaps and tail fins — all crucial in controlling a plane.

A Boeing spokesperson said the company got the subcommittee report late Monday night and was reviewing the claims. “We continuously encourage employees to report all concerns as our priority is to ensure the safety of our airplanes and the flying public,” the spokesperson said.

The FAA said it would “thoroughly investigate” claims raised in the Senate report.

The Senate subcommittee said that newly uncovered documents and whistleblower accounts “paint a troubling picture of a company that prioritizes speed of manufacturing and cutting costs over ensuring the quality and safety of aircraft.”

The 737 Max has a troubled history. The Justice Department is considering whether to prosecute Boeing for violating terms of a settlement it reached with the company over allegations it misled regulators who approved the plane. Max jets crashed in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in Ethiopia. The FAA subsequently grounded the aircraft for more than a year and a half.

Mohawk told the Senate subcommittee that the number of unacceptable parts has exploded since production of the Max resumed following the crashes. He said the increase led supervisors to tell him and other workers to “cancel” records that indicated the parts were not suitable to be installed on planes.

The FAA briefly grounded some Max planes again after January’s mid-air blowout of a plug covering an emergency exit on the Alaska Airlines plane. The agency and the National Transportation Safety Board opened separate investigations of Boeing that are continuing.

The company says it has gotten the message. Boeing says it has slowed production, encouraged employees to report safety concerns, stopped assembly lines for a day to let workers talk about safety, and appointed a retired Navy admiral to lead a quality review. Late last month, it delivered an improvement plan ordered by the FAA.

“From the beginning, we took responsibility and cooperated transparently with the NTSB and the FAA,” Calhoun said in remarks prepared for the hearing. He defended the company’s safety culture.

“Our culture is far from perfect, but we are taking action and making progress,” Mr. Calhoun said in the prepared remarks. “We are taking comprehensive action today to strengthen safety and quality.”

The drumbeat of bad news for Boeing goes on, however.

In the past week, the FAA said it was investigating how falsely documented titanium parts got into Boeing’s supply chain, and federal officials examined “substantial” damage to a Southwest Airlines 737 Max after an unusual mid-flight control issue.

Boeing disclosed that it hasn’t received a single order for a new Max — previously its best-selling plane — in two months.

Blumenthal first asked Mr. Calhoun to appear before the Senate subcommittee after a whistleblower, a Boeing quality engineer, claimed that manufacturing mistakes were raising safety risks on two of the biggest Boeing planes, the 787 Dreamliner and the 777. He said the company needed to explain why the public should be confident about Boeing’s work.

Boeing pushed back against the whistleblower’s claims, saying that extensive testing and inspections showed none of the problems that the engineer had predicted.

Mr. Calhoun announced in late March that he would retire at the end of the year. The head of the company’s commercial-airplanes unit resigned the day of Calhoun’s announcement.

Families of people who died in the Boeing Max crash in Ethiopia plan to attend Tuesday’s hearing on Capitol Hill. They have pressed the Justice Department repeatedly to prosecute Boeing.

“We will not rest until we see justice.,” said Zipporah Kuria, whose father died in the crash. She said the U.S. government should “hold Boeing and its corporate executives criminally responsible for the deaths of 346 people.”

The Justice Department determined last month that Boeing violated a 2021 settlement that shielded the company from prosecution for fraud for allegedly misleading regulators who approved the 737 Max. A top department official said Boeing failed to make changes to detect and prevent future violations of anti-fraud laws.

Prosecutors have until July 7 to decide what to do next. Blumenthal said at the start of Tuesday’s hearing that he thinks the Justice Department should prosecute the company.

John Barnett, a whistleblower who had raised concerns about safety and production standards at Boeing, has died by suicide, the police said. 

The 62-year-old was found dead inside his truck on March 9, in South Carolina, US, reported CNN.

Initial investigations into his death were underway, but they have since been halted, the report added.

Mr Barnett was scheduled to testify against Boeing (an Aerospace company) in a legal case, alleging illegal retaliation by the company, the report mentioned.

However, when he failed to show up at a court deposition, police officers conducted a welfare check and found his body on the driver’s seat of the truck. The gunshot wound to the head indicated that Mr Barnett died by suicide, the report said.

People, investigating the crime scene, found a gun in Mr Barnett’s right hand. They also spotted gunshot residue on his hand and a  single shell casing inside the truck, the report mentioned.

Further examination revealed a single shell casing inside the truck and a suicide note left on the passenger seat. These findings confirmed Mr Barnett’s death as a suicide. 

A report from the Charleston County Coroner stated that “all findings were consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound” with the coroner concluding that the manner of death is “best deemed as suicide.” 

There was reportedly also a suicide note which had his fingerprints. The note read, “I can’t do this any longer. Enough. F*** Boeing. I found my purpose. I am at peace” adding an “I love you all” to his friends and family, as per the NY Post.

The police revealed that he was alone and locked inside his vehicle when they found him. CCTV footage from the hotel showed him leaving alone and reversing into a parking spot a few minutes later. No one was seen approaching or leaving the truck until the grim discovery the following morning. Investigations into his phone records also did not reveal any signs of unusual travel patterns or communications.

John Barnett worked at Boeing for more than 30 years, retiring in 2017 as a quality control engineer. He spoke out to the BBC in 2019, stating worries about Boeing rushing the production of its 787 Dreamliner jets, which he believed was risking safety. Mr Barnett then sued Boeing, claiming they had spied on him, retaliated against him and harassed him. 

Mr Barnett’s lawyers said, “We didn’t see any indication he would take his own life. No one can believe it.”

U.S. aeronautics giant Boeing, facing increased scrutiny after a series of safety incidents and manufacturing issues, is directing employees to take “immediate actions” to improve operations, according to a message the company sent to its workforce on March 12.

The guidance, from Boeing’s head of commercial aviation Stan Deal, comes after an audit by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) — undertaken after a close call on an Alaska Airlines flight in January — found instances of non-compliance at the manufacturer.

“We have used your feedback, and those from our regulator and customers, to take immediate actions to strengthen our safety and quality,” Mr. Deal said.

“These actions are central to a comprehensive plan we will soon deliver to the FAA,” he added, referring to the US regulator’s order earlier this month that Boeing come up with a framework to address quality control within 90 days.

According to Mr. Deal, “the vast majority of our audit non-compliances involved not following our approved processes and procedures.”

To address the issues, management will set up additional training for relevant employees, establish weekly compliance checks and dedicate a portion of each shift to review procedures and check tools.

These new measures are in addition to the others put in place in recent weeks, including additional inspections.

The FAA audit came in response to a near-catastrophic incident in January, when a fuselage panel on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 Alaska Airlines jet blew off mid-flight.

No one was seriously injured, but the plane was forced to make an emergency landing with a gaping hole in the cabin.

Of the 89 production process audits conducted by the FAA, Boeing failed 33 of them, the New York Times reported Tuesday, with 97 instances of non-compliance identified.

The concerns included one use of a hotel key card to check a door seal and the use of liquid dish soap as a mechanical lubricant, according to the Times.

Series of incidents

Mr. Deal’s letter also addressed the findings of an independent expert commission appointed by the FAA, which found shortcomings with Boeing’s safety standards — notably, that they may be too complex and cause confusion among employees.

“Our teams are working to simplify and streamline our processes and address the panel’s recommendations,” Mr. Deal said, while meanwhile calling on employees to implement certain changes immediately.

“Precisely follow every step of our manufacturing procedures and processes,” he urged.

“We can and should update procedures and processes, but until then, we must adhere to the existing ones.”

Employees should also “always be on the lookout for a potential safety hazard or quality escape,” Mr. Deal added, encouraging them to use the company’s internal reporting system to flag concerns when necessary.

Boeing is still facing investigations from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), while US media has reported the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation.

The company has faced questions following several other potentially dangerous episodes in addition to the Alaska incident, including an engine fire on a Boeing 747 shortly after takeoff from Florida in January.

Last week, a Boeing 777 jetliner bound for Japan had to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff from San Francisco when a wheel fell off and plunged into an airport parking lot, damaging several cars.

And New Zealand authorities on Tuesday launched an investigation after a Boeing 787 Dreamliner violently lost altitude mid-flight from Sydney to Auckland, injuring a host of terrified passengers.