Ted Cruz Grills Boeing CEO On Company's 'Safety Culture' After 'Significant' Changes In Leadership

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During a senate Commerce Committee hearing last week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) questioned Boeing CEO, Kelly Ortberg, on the 'safety culture' at Boeing.

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Transcript

00:00Mr. Ortberg, the FAA has played an integral role in solidifying a safe approach to production

00:08adjustments at Boeing following the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 incident. As Boeing continues

00:14to monitor its KPIs and begins to increase production as appropriate, it will likely

00:20grow more autonomous in its internal oversight. As Boeing regains autonomy and eventually

00:27increases production caps, how will Boeing guarantee safety without enhanced FAA oversight?

00:36Senator, I'm not aware of increased autonomy that will come as we increase production rates.

00:44We're going to continue to provide transparency to the FAA on all the key performance indicators.

00:51We will go through a series of production increases. So the first one, cap, is at 38.

00:57But we will go through the same process for every subsequent rate increase. And if the

01:02KPIs aren't showing that we're meeting the performance, then we won't move forward with

01:07a rate increase. So I think this is a good practice. I think what we have in place, it's

01:12data driven. It's not subjective. We've agreed with our regulator on what things we need

01:18to be measuring. If we find we need to adjust that, we'll do that. But I think getting to

01:23a data driven process, I think, helps them also have insight and prioritize where they

01:30should focus. If our key indicators in one area are not good, that allows them to say,

01:37okay, we need to put more oversight in that particular area because there's instability

01:42in the production system. So again, I think the system we have in place, the plan we have

01:48in place will be effective not just in the near term but for the long term.

01:54Since you've become the chief executive officer at Boeing, there have been significant changes

01:59on the board and in the leadership. As the leadership changes, this affects the culture

02:04at Boeing. What personnel changes have been made at Boeing and how have these impacted

02:09the safety culture at the company?

02:13In my opening remarks, Senator, I made the comment we've made massive organizational

02:17and people changes. And if you go back to the door plug time frame, just to kind of

02:22time frame the changes, we've got a new chairman of our board, we've got a new CEO, we've got

02:28a new head of our Boeing commercial airplanes. We have new people in many of the program

02:34management roles. And so we are changing as we're changing the culture, we're also changing

02:39people to make sure they're focused on safety and quality as the foundation of the company.

02:46So far, I'd say the results are showing good results. We'll continue to have to refine

02:53either promoting different people or bringing some additional people from the outside to

02:58help us on our journey. But I think the progress we've made so far looks like we're getting

03:04the results we want.

Ted Cruz Grills Boeing CEO On Company's 'Safety Culture' After 'Significant' Changes In Leadership

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