Image source, Getty Images

There were three distinct groups in this Senate hearing:

1. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun and chief engineer Howard McKenzie
2. Family members of victims who died in Boeing plane crashes
3. US lawmakers pushing the Boeing boss for firm answers

None of these groups will likely leave today with any real sense of closure.

Many of the senators were direct in their questioning, even aggressive, as they asked about treatment of whistleblowers and safety practices.

Calhoun offered an apology to the victims' families of fatal Boeing crashes, and admitted his firm needed to be better.

But he could not tell lawmakers how many whistleblowers had been fired or disciplined for speaking out, just that he knew it had happened.

Victims' families watched the hearing while holding photos of their loved ones high above their heads. When Calhoun entered the room, some yelled at him. When he left, they screamed again. One woman cried out: "How could you?".

We're finishing our live coverage, but you can read more about the dramatic hearing here.

Caitlin Wilson reported for us from the hearing at Capitol Hill in Washington DC, and business reporter Natalie Sherman provided additional analysis.

Thanks for following along.

Boeing made news headlines around the world in January when part of a door fell off an aircraft mid-flight over the United States.

Regulators temporarily grounded nearly 200 Boeing 737 Max 9 jets after a door plug-designed to cover an opening where an optional emergency exit can be placed - fell from an Alaska Air plane shortly after take-off from Portland, Oregon.

The section that fell from the sky was a 27kg (60lb) part of the shell.

The cabin abruptly depressurised, creating a rush of air that ripped off the flight crew’s headsets and sent passengers’ cell phones and other items flying out of the plane.

The incident raised serious safety concerns at the aerospace firm, which you can read about here.

The accidents five years ago ultimately led to conclusions that the Federal Aviation Administration, charged with overseeing Boeing, had had safety lapses of its own.

This time, the FAA has been trying to prove it has changed.

The agency was quick to ground planes after the Alaska Airlines blow-out.

It also added more factory inspections, increased its review of the firm’s processes and is developing data to monitor whether manufacturing is improving.

FAA chief Mike Whitaker told Congress last week the agency had previously been too “hands off” in regard to Boeing.

The mother and brother of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, who died by suicide earlier this year, also attended Tuesday's Senate hearing.

Barnett's brother, Rodney Barnett, told reporters on Capitol Hill that he thought CEO Dave Calhoun offered a lot of "empty words" in his testimony.

But, he said, he was "encouraged" by what he and his mother, Vicky Stokes, heard from the senators.

Image source, Getty Images

As everyone filed out of the Senate hearing room, I ran into Senator Richard Blumenthal, the chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

I asked the senator what he thought of Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun's testimony, and if there were any answers from him he didn't get but still wants.

"I have a lot more questions that need to be answered and we're going to be pursuing our investigation," Blumenthal told me.

Speaking to a group of reporters a few minutes later, Blumenthal said he hopes his committee's probe can help bring some "peace" to victims' families, and that today's hearing encourages other whistleblowers to continue to come forward.

Image source, Getty Images

Families of victims of the Boeing crashes in 2018 and 2019 spoke to journalists after CEO Dave Calhoun's testimony.

Many were angry, calling for further consequences for Calhoun and others at Boeing.

When asked about their reactions to Calhoun's apology, many were not moved.

Catherine Berthet, whose daughter Camille Geoffrey was killed, said she believes Calhoun has "never" been sorry.

"I've never seen worse acting in my life," Zipporah Kuria, whose father Joseph Kuria Waithaka, died in the 2019 Ethiopia Airlines crash, said of Calhoun's apology.

And Clariss Moore, whose daughter Danielle Moore was killed, said that listening to Calhoun repeat that safety is a top priority at Boeing "doesn't sit well anymore".

Boeing has lost money every year since 2019, a sum totalling roughly $32bn - more than any other firm in the S&P.

The losses, after more than two decades of profitability, reflect the toll from the crashes and ongoing production issues that have plagued the company and limited how many planes Boeing can make.

Boeing had hoped this year would be the one to put those problems to rest.

Instead, parts of a door blew off a plane in January shortly after takeoff. That incident renewed the crisis, sparking lawsuits and increased oversight.

It prompted Boeing to sharply curb production again to try to resolve the production issues.

It delivered just 24 commercial airplanes in May – about half the number in 2023 and well below the 38 per month cap that the Federal Aviation Administration imposed after the Alaska Airlines incident in January.

Boeing, which burned through nearly $4bn in cash at the start of the year, has said it hopes to ramp up production in the second half of 2024.

But investors aren’t holding their breath. Shares in the firm are still down about 30% since the start of the year.

With Boeing under fire, arch-rival Airbus has gained market share.

A Chinese firm backed by the government has also recently launched a new plane, which is expected to start winning more orders.

Analyst Ronald Epstein, managing director of aerospace & defense at Bank of America, says Boeing’s current issues have set the stage that could allow new players to be able to emerge in the industry.

In the past, airlines would express interest in an alternative to the two big firms, he said.

“What’s different now is they really mean it,” he said.

“Boeing’s too big to fail, but not too big to be mediocre,” he said.

As the hearing finished, one of the family members of a Boeing crash victim was crying and yelled out at CEO Dave Calhoun.

Clariss Moore, whose daughter Danielle was killed in a Boeing crash in 2019, said to the Boeing boss: "How could you?"

Image source, Getty Images

Senator Blumenthal ends the hearing saying he believes Boeing needs a new set of leaders.

The search for a new chief executive, of course, is already on, after Dave Calhoun said he would step down by the end of the year.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that the company is having difficulty finding candidates interested in the role.

Calhoun was pressed by Josh Hawley earlier in the hearing about why he had not already resigned, to which he replied: "I am sticking this through".

Democratic chairman Richard Blumenthal says the committee is running out of time, asking Dave Calhoun to bring them answers to some of the questions he was unable to answer today.

"I'm going to take you at your word" on that, Blumenthal says.

One of those questions the Boeing boss said he would find out details to was how many people were fired or disciplined for being whistleblowers.

Blumenthal then asks whether Calhoun thinks there should be more leadership changes at Boeing.

"Senator, we have made a very significant number of changes" since the 2018 and 2019 tragedies, Calhoun says, and says more changes were made since the January Alaska Airlines incident.

"It's hard" to implement accountability, Calhoun says, but adds that he believes in it.

For Blumenthal, "more accountability" is necessary.

"You've certainly demonstrated you can talk about these changes, but making these changes may very well require a different team," he says.

Many of them are a "matter of life and death," Blumenthal says, before gavelling the meeting to a close.

Boeing engineer Howard McKenzie was asked about the Southwest Airlines flight, which regulators are investigating after it experienced a "Dutch roll" - a rare but potentially serious event in which the plane rocks back and forth.

McKenzie says Boeing is participating in the inquiry but the information it has so far does not indicate a wider problem.

He says what the firm knows suggests the plane encountered a "particular circumstance" unrelated to manufacturing or engineering and there is no "cause for concern for the fleet".

Senator Richard Blumenthal is asking again about allegations of retaliation against whistleblowers.

"We have a process, it works," Dave Calhoun says.

"I beg to differ," Blumenthal responds, causing a some people in the room to laugh out loud.

"It's not working, you know it's not working."

There has been "no action" on rectifying a culture of retaliation, he says, accusing the company of "recycling old ideas" without making concrete changes.

The struggles at Boeing might have sunk a lesser company.

But in some ways the firm is a prime example of “too big to fail”.

It is one of just two major manufacturers of commercial planes – and ranks in the top five defence contractors, with more than $14bn worth of contracts with the US Department of Defense in 2022 alone.

Its key role in the US, where it employs roughly 150,000 people, has raised questions about whether regulators, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), have been too deferential to the firm in the past.

In 2021, after the Lion Air and Ethiopia crashes, the Department of Justice and Boeing worked out a deal that allowed the firm to avoid a criminal fraud charge, which would have limited Boeing’s ability to work with the government.

The DOJ warned Boeing earlier this year that it had violated the terms of that deal – but whether it will be branded a felon remains an open question.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley takes the floor for a second time.

The problems with Boeing are "at the top," he says.

"You're the problem," he tells CEO Dave Calhoun.

Senator Blumenthal has pressed Dave Calhoun on how much of the $2.5bn the company agreed to pay in 2021 to resolve a criminal fraud charge was covered by insurance.

Blumenthal also asks if the company had taken tax deductions related to the deal.

Calhoun says he did not know the answers off the top of his head, but promised to follow-up.

The deal included a $243.6m criminal penalty and $500m fund for families of people who died on the 2018 and 2019 flights, as well as nearly $1.8bn for airline customers.

Boeing had explicitly promised not to seek a tax deduction connected to the criminal penalty, but the agreement was quiet about how to handle other parts of the settlement.

Ahead of the hearing, family members said insurance had covered the fund the company created for them.

"They have never had to feel any pain at all - they just paid out through insurance," claimed Nadia Milleron, whose daughter Samya Stumo was killed on the Ethiopia Airlines flight.

Let's revisit a moment from the start of the hearing, when Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun turned to face family members who lost loved ones in fatal crashes.

Some of those family members shouted at Calhoun when he entered the hearing, as they held up photos and signs.

The video above shows Calhoun's apology.

Dave Calhoun says he has read whistleblower John Barnett's legal deposition, which he gave just before dying by suicide in South Carolina.

The account left him "heartbroken", Calhoun says.

Chairman Richard Blumenthal is now asking Dave Calhoun about whether anyone at Boeing knew before October 2018 whether the 737 Max planes were likely to crash given the faulty software issues.

Calhoun says he disagrees with Blumenthal's characterisation.

"You're going to make me really angry," Blumenthal responds.

This is a "moment of reckoning for Boeing," Blumenthal says. The only way to course correct is to "face the truth," he says, calling for individuals to be held accountable for the Max crashes, possibly criminally.

Calhoun says he agrees and believes "strongly" in accountability.

Image source, Reuters

Boeing chief engineer Howard McKenzie is now answering his first question, which has come from Senator Roger Marshall.

"What happened to the safety culture of Boeing?" Marshall asks. "What went wrong?"

McKenzie claims these days there is "absolutely" a culture of safety first within Boeing's engineering team.

He says the door that fell off the Alaska Airlines plane in January was a manufacturing issue, but that there were no problems with the door's engineering design.

That means Boeing is "not executing a plan perfectly", Marshall says.

The senator then directs the same question to Calhoun: "What went wrong?"