As Boeing faces multiple government investigations, the company must make “a serious transformation” in safety and production quality, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Monday.
The comments came a day after Buttigieg said the plane maker has been under “tremendous” scrutiny from his department since a panel blew off a Boeing 737 Max jet in the middle of a fight.
Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into the Jan. 5 explosion of an Alaska Airlines plane. That followed the company’s admission that it could not find data requested by the National Transportation Safety Board about work on the panel at a Boeing factory.
The Federal Aviation Administration, part of Buttigieg’s department, is also investigating Boeing.
“Clearly we respect the independence of DOJ (the Department of Justice) and NTSB (the National Transportation Safety Board) doing their own jobs,” Buttigieg told reporters on Monday, “but we are not neutral on whether Boeing must fully cooperate with any entity – NTSB, us or DOJ. They should, and we expect them to do so.”
Buttigieg said Boeing “needs to make some serious transformation here in terms of their responsiveness, their culture and their quality issues.”
Boeing provided a one-sentence response.
“We will continue to cooperate fully and transparently with all government investigations and audits as we take comprehensive action to improve safety and quality at Boeing,” the company said.
Alaska Airlines says it is cooperating with the Justice Department’s investigation.
“In an event like this, it is normal for the DOJ to conduct an investigation,” the Seattle-based airline said in a statement. “We are fully cooperating and do not believe we are a target of the investigation.”
Last week, Arlington, Virginia-based Boeing faced scathing criticism from NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy over missing work records aboard the Alaska plane. She told a Senate committee that Boeing had repeatedly rebuffed her agency’s efforts to obtain information since the eruption. Boeing disputed some of Homendy’s claims; NTSB stood by its testimony.
The FAA has barred Boeing from boosting production of Max jets and given the company 90 days to come up with a plan to resolve quality control issues.