US Senate committee to hold hearing on Boeing safety culture report

The US Senate Commerce Committee said on Thursday it would hold a hearing next week with members of an expert panel that released a report in February criticizing Boeing's safety culture and calling for significant improvements. The hearing next Wednesday comes as the US planemaker has been grappling with a full-blown safety crisis that has undermined its reputation following a Jan. 5 mid-air panel blowout on a new 737 MAX 9. It has since undergone a management shakeup, US regulators have put curbs on its production and its aircraft deliveries fell by half in March. The committee will hear from three panel members, including Tracy Dillinger, a NASA expert on safety culture, Javier de Luis, an aeronautics expert at MIT, and Najmedin Meshkati, a University of Southern California professor and expert on aviation safety. Senator Maria Cantwell, the committee chair, said on Wednesday she was impressed with the expert witness panel report and wanted to hear from members first before she called the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for a future hearing. Boeing declined to comment on the hearing.<br/>