After the door plug failure, Boeing submitted a comprehensive action plan to the FAA. The House Transportation Committee called the Administrator in to say whether it was working. Along the way he described a change most passengers would not know about: the FAA had stopped letting Boeing sign off on its own aircraft.
Speaking up
BurchettMr. Whitaker--Administrator Whitaker, excuse me--one of the big issues at Boeing is the breakdown in communication, the way I see it. I appreciate the Speak Up program, but how is Boeing improving communication between different teams to ensure quality control issues do not slip through the cracks?
WhitakerWell, making sure that there is a robust program in place where the employees can speak up is a key component of the safety management system, and it is required for success. That is where you get your best information, is from the floor. So, we are watching very diligently to make sure that that program is available and is being used. So, we are doing surveys of employees and talking with folks on the ground.
WhitakerBut the employees have multiple pathways, including coming directly to FAA if they don't feel like they can speak up at Boeing. They can come to our website and file information there as well.
BurchettHow will folks be reviewed or responded to that do those kind of things?
WhitakerSo, there is--at FAA, we have a very regimented program to protect identity, and each claim gets investigated very thoroughly. And we are working to make sure that that same approach is taken at Boeing so there is no retaliation. In fact, people should be recognized for speaking up, and we are seeing an uptick in reports over the course of this year.
BurchettDo we have any metrics that show that it has improved the operations through this new line of communications--or old line, I guess I should say?
WhitakerI think the best metric is going to be employee surveys, and I can respond back to your office to see if we have any additional specific information about that.
[Hearing transcript, questioning by Rep. Burchett.]
What the indicators would have caught
Representative Molinaro asked what a better oversight model would actually have detected before the Alaska Airlines flight.
MolinaroAdministrator Whitaker, thanks very much for being here. I heard you talk about the changes at FAA to obviously address the needed oversight: "process to continuously improve and update our oversight models." Give me a practical application of what that might look like. And additionally, how might that change at FAA--how might that change have called into question, or at least alerted us, of the potential risk of the Alaska Airlines incident?
WhitakerThank you, sir. So, I think one feature is, we need to not set an oversight model in place and just let it run forever. So, I think we need to constantly see, are we looking at the right data, as business models change, as technology changes.
WhitakerI think a good example of a more dynamic approach is how we oversee airlines. We have an index that accounts for about a dozen different data points, and that index gives us a real-time picture of how the airlines are doing, how they are trending. And if we start to see a trend that we don't like, we implement an audit that is tied to those features.
MolinaroSo, we know from your report and, of course, Boeing's response to the incident, what was the trend that might have been identified in this particular case to have helped us avert such a tragic situation?
WhitakerSo, I think if you look at what we have implemented since January 5th, we put in these key performance indicators--there are six of them--and they give us a reading month by month on how Boeing is doing in those six areas.
WhitakerThat includes how much traveled work--how much work is done out of order in the manufacturing process, for example. That indicator would have shown that there was a lot of work being done out of process, which creates a safety risk, because work is done not on the factory floor but when the airplane has already been pushed out onto the tarmac and it is not part of the system.
[Hearing transcript, questioning by Rep. Molinaro.]
Three to five years
MolinaroSo, do you feel confident at this point that Boeing has--switching to Boeing and attention to Boeing--has made adequate adjustments to at least the culture to address these safety issues?
WhitakerSo, I think there are really two parts to the plan with Boeing. One is the short term and one is long term, and I would put culture in the long-term category. It is not a 6-month program. It is a 3-year to 5-year program.
WhitakerThere has been significant progress made, for example, on traveled work. Boeing moved about 100 inspectors down to Wichita to Spirit to make sure that the product coming out of Spirit was properly completed.
WhitakerSo, there has been some short-term progress, but on culture, I think it is a long-term project, and I have talked to the board and the CEO about the need to be in it for the long term and making sure they arrive in that place.
MolinaroBut it is fair to say that you feel that, at the very least, both short term and long term, Boeing is making adequate adjustments to provide for safety in the immediate situation and address the cultural deficiencies?
WhitakerWe are currently writing the airworthiness certificate on each aircraft. Normally that would be delegated to Boeing, but we have taken that over so that we are making sure that every airplane that comes out there is safe.
WhitakerSo, we are not to the point where we are turning that over. We are working with them to develop their safety management system, and we are in it pretty intensively with them. So, we are monitoring that progress, there is progress, but they are not where they need to be yet.
MolinaroSo, my constituents will ask a very simple question: Is it safe to fly in a Boeing 737 MAX 9?
WhitakerIt is safe. We certify each one of them. We do a final inspection in addition to the Boeing inspection. So, we are keeping a close eye on them.
MolinaroSo, I will see you on one.
[Hearing transcript, questioning by Rep. Molinaro.]