In this April 26 photo, a worker walks past a Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplane being built for Oman Air at Boeing’s assembly facility in Renton. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

In this April 26 photo, a worker walks past a Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplane being built for Oman Air at Boeing’s assembly facility in Renton. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

House leaders want to talk to employees who worked on 737 Max

Rep. Rick Larsen and Oregon Rep. DeFazio formally requested interviews with several Boeing workers.

By Steve Miletich / The Seattle Times

Two U.S. House leaders urged Boeing Chairman and Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg on Thursday to make company employees available to answer questions about the development of the 737 MAX, ratcheting up congressional scrutiny into two fatal crashes of the jetliner.

In a letter to Muilenburg, Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Rick Larsen, D-Lake Stevens, chair of the Aviation subcommittee, formally requested interviews with several Boeing employees.

“The Committee believes certain employees may be able to shed light on issues central to the Committee’s investigation, including information about the design, development and certification of the 737 MAX,” their letter said.

The committee request was made as a courtesy, without using its subpoena power.

The letter noted that while the Chicago-based company has provided a substantial number of documents to the committee in the past several months and shared “senior management’s perspective,” the committee needs to “hear from relevant Boeing employees who can provide unique insight into specific issues and decisions in a way that senior Boeing management cannot.”

In a statement responding to the letter, a Boeing spokesperson said, “We’re deeply disappointed the committee chose to release private correspondence given our extensive cooperation to date. We will continue to be transparent and responsive to the committee.”

DeFazio and Larsen, in a news release, didn’t identify whom they want to interview, nor provide any details about those employees’ roles in the development of the jetliner.

Boeing’s senior leaders have yet to testify before House and Senate committees looking into issues arising from the crashes, ranging from regulatory oversight of Boeing to the impact on relatives of the 346 people killed in the crashes off Indonesia on Oct. 29 and in Ethiopia on March 10.

Separately, the U.S. Justice Department is conducting a wide-ranging criminal investigation into the development of the 737 MAX in the wake of the crashes, including FBI agents visiting the homes of Boeing employees in so-called “knock-and-talks,” according to a source familiar with the confidential activity who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Also, the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General is conducting an administrative audit into the certification of the MAX.

DeFazio and Larsen urged Muilenburg to make the employees available as soon as possible, disclosing that the transportation committee is preparing for another hearing.

Boeing has provided 300,000 pages of documents and detailed technical information to the committee, as well as briefings from senior technical executives, according to the company.

Larsen’s subcommittee held a hearing in July, featuring a Canadian man whose wife, three children and mother-in-law were killed in the crash in Ethiopia. Paul Njoroge, a Toronto investment adviser, accused Boeing of sacrificing safety for profits while avoiding the eye of federal regulators.

In March, Daniel Elwell, the then-acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) fiercely defended the agency’s oversight of the Boeing 737 in intense and sometimes combative Senate testimony.

“We do not allow self-certification of any kind,” Elwell said, even as he confirmed that his agency delegated the review of a new safety system on Boeing’s 737 MAX to the company itself, as The Seattle Times reported in an investigation.

His acknowledgment came during questioning from lawmakers over the FAA’s role in approving the 737 MAX and a piece of safety software, known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). That system, implicated in both crashes, was a new feature on the 737 MAX to help the plane avoid a potential stall that could be caused by the larger engines on the jet.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Nation-World

FILE - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II looks on during a visit to officially open the new building at Thames Hospice, Maidenhead, England July 15, 2022. Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth II is under medical supervision as doctors are “concerned for Her Majesty’s health.” The announcement comes a day after the 96-year-old monarch canceled a meeting of her Privy Council and was told to rest. (Kirsty O'Connor/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Queen Elizabeth II dead at 96 after 70 years on the throne

Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and a rock of stability across much of a turbulent century died Thursday.

A woman reacts as she prepares to leave an area for relatives of the passengers aboard China Eastern's flight MU5735 at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Tuesday, March 22, 2022, in Guangzhou. No survivors have been found as rescuers on Tuesday searched the scattered wreckage of a China Eastern plane carrying 132 people that crashed a day earlier on a wooded mountainside in China's worst air disaster in more than a decade. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
No survivors found in crash of Boeing 737 in China

What caused the plane to drop out of the sky shortly before it was to being its descent remained a mystery.

In this photo taken by mobile phone released by Xinhua News Agency, a piece of wreckage of the China Eastern's flight MU5735 are seen after it crashed on the mountain in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday, March 21, 2022. A China Eastern Boeing 737-800 with 132 people on board crashed in a remote mountainous area of southern China on Monday, officials said, setting off a forest fire visible from space in the country's worst air disaster in nearly a decade. (Xinhua via AP)
Boeing 737 crashes in southern China with 132 aboard

More than 15 hours after communication was lost with the plane, there was still no word of survivors.

In this photo taken from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the nation in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. Street fighting broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city Sunday and Russian troops put increasing pressure on strategic ports in the country's south following a wave of attacks on airfields and fuel facilities elsewhere that appeared to mark a new phase of Russia's invasion. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
Ukraine wants EU membership, but accession often takes years

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request has enthusiastic support from several member states.

FILE - Ukrainian servicemen walk by fragments of a downed aircraft,  in in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. The International Criminal Court's prosecutor has put combatants and their commanders on notice that he is monitoring Russia's invasion of Ukraine and has jurisdiction to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity. But, at the same time, Prosecutor Karim Khan acknowledges that he cannot investigate the crime of aggression. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak, File)
ICC prosecutor to open probe into war crimes in Ukraine

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet confirmed that 102 civilians have been killed.

FILE - Refugees fleeing conflict from neighboring Ukraine arrive to Zahony, Hungary, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. As hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians seek refuge in neighboring countries, cradling children in one arm and clutching belongings in the other, leaders in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania are offering a hearty welcome. (AP Photo/Anna Szilagyi, File)
Europe welcomes Ukrainian refugees — others, less so

It is a stark difference from treatment given to migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa.

Afghan evacuees disembark the plane and board a bus after landing at Skopje International Airport, North Macedonia, on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. North Macedonia has hosted another group of 44 Afghan evacuees on Wednesday where they will be sheltered temporarily till their transfer to final destinations. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)
‘They are safe here.’ Snohomish County welcomes hundreds of Afghans

The county’s welcoming center has been a hub of services and assistance for migrants fleeing Afghanistan since October.

FILE - In this April 15, 2019, file photo, a vendor makes change for a marijuana customer at a cannabis marketplace in Los Angeles. An unwelcome trend is emerging in California, as the nation's most populous state enters its fifth year of broad legal marijuana sales. Industry experts say a growing number of license holders are secretly operating in the illegal market — working both sides of the economy to make ends meet. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
In California pot market, a hazy line between legal and not

Industry insiders say the practice of working simultaneously in the legal and illicit markets is a financial reality.

19 dead, including 9 children, in NYC apartment fire

More than five dozen people were injured and 13 people were still in critical condition in the hospital.

15 dead after Russian skydiver plane crashes

The L-410, a Czech-made twin-engine turboprop, crashed near the town of Menzelinsk.

FILE - In this March 29, 2018, file photo, the logo for Facebook appears on screens at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York's Times Square. Facebook prematurely turned off safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and rabble rousing after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 elections in a moneymaking move that a company whistleblower alleges contributed to the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, invasion of the U.S. Capitol. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram in hourslong worldwide outage

Something made the social media giant’s routes inaccessable to the rest of the internet.

Oil washed up on Huntington Beach, Calif., on Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Crews race to limited damage from California oil spill

At least 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of oil spilled into the waters off Orange County.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.