Under Cantwell Questioning, Boeing CEO Commits to Implementing New Safety Protocols In Next 6 Months
CEO Kelly Ortberg: ‘I'm absolutely committed to a mandatory Safety Management System. I appreciate your leadership there, and we're working to get that done… by October of this year’; Cantwell has long advocated for mandatory Safety Management Systems industrywide, as opposed to voluntary compliance
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, questioned Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg on how the company is improving its safety protocols and culture and correcting defects during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
“We're here today, Mr. Ortberg, to see if Boeing and your new leadership are making the fundamental changes that we would like to see to return the trust,” Sen. Cantwell said in her opening remarks. “We shouldn't forget that that success is also critical to our national security, to our economy. The company employs over 67,000 people in the State of Washington. I think the whole supply chain is well over 130,000 people, and contributes $79 billion to the American economy […] However, the company must address these manufacturing quality issues.”
In her questioning, Sen. Cantwell focused on Boeing’s implementation of a mandatory, effective Safety Management System (SMS). An SMS is a set of policies and procedures to proactively identify and address potential operational hazards, complete with checks and redundancies to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
Currently, Boeing adheres to a voluntary SMS that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Organization Designation Authorization Expert Review Panel found was not understood “by the average employee” – the panel issued a report last year with 27 findings of concern and 53 recommendations. FAA finally made SMS mandatory for aviation manufacturers last summer in response to requirements in the 2020 Cantwell-led Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act (ACSAA) to do so, but the FAA extended the timeline for manufacturers to have a fully implemented SMS until 2027.
“The expert panel, I think they were very critical of the SMS structure that existed at Boeing under that voluntary structure. So how is it that this is going to change? And will you commit today to a fully functioning Safety Management System that meets the FAA standards?” Sen. Cantwell asked.
Ortberg responded: “Senator, you're right. We've been operating under a voluntary SMS for approximately the last four years, and I think the Alaska door accident was a cathartic moment for all of us to step back and look at what happened. How could this happen within the Safety Management System?
“We had the expert panel. We also brought in outside consultants. The FAA did a comprehensive audit of our systems, and we found significant gaps in many of the processes that we use to implement our Safety Management System. Those gaps are all a part of our safety and quality plan that we're working with the FAA to improve the overall performance.
“I'm absolutely committed to a mandatory Safety Management System. I appreciate your leadership there, and we're working to get that done. Actually, I'd like to have that in place by October of this year. We submitted our draft to the FAA, and we're absolutely committed to move into a mandatory SMS.”
Ortberg and Sen. Cantwell also discussed the need for the Pacific Northwest to develop a robust advanced aviation materials manufacturing industry – a key component of the Tech Hub designation awarded to a consortium of researchers and manufacturers based out of the Inland Northwest. Sen. Cantwell authored the Tech Hub program in the 2022 CHIPS & Science Act and secured program funding in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.
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Sen. Cantwell asked: “Do you see this thermoplastics as a really game changing manufacturing technology focus? Is it really what people are saying?”
Ortberg responded: “I think thermoplastics offer a huge advantage for the future, and probably more to streamline the production of aircraft. And so I think it is an important, one of those major, important technology areas we should be investing in, and I think it's going to find its way into many applications in the future aircraft environment.”
Sen. Cantwell: “Do you see it as something that if we neglect that we could fall behind in as a nation, juxtaposed (to) other countries?”
Ortberg: “I think Europe has invested probably more than we have in general in this particular area. I don't think we're behind in a way that we can't recover. I do think it's an area that we need to continue to have overall focus, not just as the Boeing Company, but in terms of new technology evolution within the country.”
Sen. Cantwell is a stalwart champion of implementing stronger aviation manufacturing safety regulations. Yesterday, she sent a letter to Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau urging him to examine whether Boeing has satisfied the conditions needed to reauthorize the company’s Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) renewal, which is set to expire next month.
In February, she vehemently opposed Steven Bradbury as President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The main reason for her opposition was Bradbury’s decision under the first Trump administration to halt a rule requiring plane manufacturers to adhere to a mandatory SMS – just nine days after the first of the two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes in 2018.
“We need a leader on safety. We need someone who is going to make it the number one priority, not modify the rule to suit the industry,” Sen. Cantwell said during Bradbury’s committee hearing.
In August 2024, Sen. Cantwell introduced the FAA SMS Compliance Review Act. The bill directs the FAA to:
- Convene an independent review panel that will make recommendations to help the FAA implement a robust, comprehensive Safety Management System across all lines of business at the agency, which includes Aviation Safety, Air Traffic Organization, Airports, Security & Hazardous Materials Safety, and the Office of Commercial Space Transportation.
- Develop and implement effective processes for performing root cause analyses to identify opportunities for improvement in the FAA’s execution of its regulatory oversight responsibilities.
- Revise its procedures to shorten the time that manufacturers have to prepare for audits from 50 days to one week.
Following the Alaska Airlines flight 1282 incident in January 2024, Sen. Cantwell has held a series of aviation safety hearings, along with leading legislation and letters calling for stronger safety oversight at the FAA.
In January 2023 and January 2024, Sen. Cantwell requested that FAA perform a special technical audit of Boeing’s production line. The FAA later said the audit found multiple instances where Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.
Sen. Cantwell held an April hearing to review the independent Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) Expert Review Panel’s final report, a March 2024 hearing with National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy on its investigation of the January incident and a June hearing with FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker on the agency’s oversight of aviation manufacturers.
In May, Sen. Cantwell and Sen. Duckworth led the passage of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, which includes new measures to improve aviation safety, such as putting more safety inspectors on factory floors, addressing the nation’s shortage of air traffic controllers, deploying new runway technology to prevent close calls, mandating new 25-hour cockpit recording systems to assist in investigations, and enhancing aircraft certification reforms.
The FAA Reauthorization Act builds upon the Aircraft Certification, Safety and Accountability Act of 2020, spearheaded by Sen. Cantwell in the aftermath of the Boeing 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019.
Video of Sen. Cantwell’s opening statement today is HERE; video of her first round of Q&A with Ortberg is HERE; video of her second round of Q&A with Ortberg is HERE; video of her third round of Q&A with Ortberg is HERE; and a transcript is HERE.
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