January 09, 2020

Chair DeFazio’s Statement on Newly-Released Boeing Emails

Washington, D.C. —  Today, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chair Peter DeFazio released the following statement after Boeing made new emails public which shed new light on Boeing’s internal discussions regarding the design, development, and certification of the Boeing 737 MAX as well as problems with the 737 MAX simulators:

“These newly-released emails are incredibly damning. They paint a deeply disturbing picture of the lengths Boeing was apparently willing to go to in order to evade scrutiny from regulators, flight crews, and the flying public, even as its own employees were sounding alarms internally. I can only imagine how painful it must be for the families of the 346 victims to read these new documents that detail some of the earliest and most fundamental errors in the decisions that went into the fatally flawed aircraft.

“For nearly 10 months, my Committee has been investigating the design, development and certification of the MAX, and in that time, our investigation has uncovered multiple, serious problems with Boeing’s decision-making and the priority that was placed on production and profit over safety. But these new emails bring my concerns to an entirely new level. They show a coordinated effort dating back to the earliest days of the 737 MAX program to conceal critical information from regulators and the public. While it is also clear from these emails that the problems did not merely stem from a lone Boeing employee who uses colorful language in his communications, I have reiterated my request for an interview with former Boeing 737 MAX Chief Technical Pilot Mark Forkner to his attorneys, and I expect to hear from them at the earliest possible date.”

For more information on the Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Boeing 737 MAX, click here.

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