Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s (D-Conn.) office identified the whistleblower as Sam Mohawk, a quality assurance inspector for the planemaker in Renton, Wash. Mohawk alleges Boeing improperly tracked and stored faulty parts, and that those parts were likely installed on airplanes including the 737 Max, which is manufactured at the Renton facility.
Blumenthal chairs Homeland Security’s investigations subcommittee, which grilled Boeing CEO David Calhoun later on Tuesday on the company’s “broken safety culture.”
After the Alaska Airlines blowout in January, the outgoing CEO said Boeing was “accountable for what happened.”
“From the beginning, we took responsibility and cooperated transparently with the [National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)] and the [Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)] in their respective investigations,” according to a copy of Calhoun’s prepared testimony shared with The Hill ahead of the hearing.
Multiple whistleblowers have come forward with allegations that the planemaker cut corners to increase profits and retaliated against employees who spoke up. Several testified before the subcommittee in April.
After that hearing, a Boeing spokesperson told The Hill the company is “fully confident in the safety and durability of the 787 Dreamliner” and “extensive and rigorous testing of the fuselage and heavy maintenance checks of nearly 700 in-service airplanes to date have found zero evidence of airframe fatigue.”
Boeing has been working to get back in the good graces of lawmakers in the wake of the Alaska Airlines incident. A Boeing spokesperson previously told The Hill that the company’s in-house lobbying team had reached out to all 535 members of Congress within a week of the accident.
The Hill’s Taylor Giorno has more here.
