Committee chairman Richard Blumenthal has started proceedings

"Thank you for having the strength and courage to be with us," Blumenthal says, speaking to those in the audience who lost family members in fatal Boeing crashes.

Committee members are "sorry for your losses", Blumenthal says.

A reminder that you can watch along by pressing "watch live" at the top of this page.

As the hearing gets ready to start, a group of spectators, many wearing Palestinian keffiyehs, are standing with their hands raised in front of their faces.

"Shame", "Stop sending weapons to Israel", they're saying, accusing Boeing of "fuelling" the situation in Gaza.

Some of them have red paint on their hands and are holding signs, to protest the participation of Boeing - which is also a major US defence contractor in addition to a commercial airplane manufacturer - in providing weapons to Israel for use in Gaza.

"Get your priorities straight, Boeing. People over profit," one protestor says.

I've just taken my seat in the hearing room on Capitol Hill ahead of Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun's testimony to a Senate investigations sub-committee.

Members of the public, lawmakers and their staff and journalists are filing, in after waiting in a long queue in the corridor.

Photographers are gathering around the witness table in the front of the room - ready to snap pictures of Calhoun as he gets sworn in to testify.

You'll be able to watch the hearing by pressing "watch live" at the top of this page.

An uncomfortable session for Dave Calhounpublished at 18:49 18 June

18:49 18 June

Theo Leggett
BBC International Business Correspondent

Dave Calhoun has been in the top job at Boeing for more than four years.

Today, senators may well be tempted to ask what exactly he has achieved.

When he was appointed, Boeing was in crisis - accused of putting profits over safety following two catastrophic crashes involving its bestselling new jet, the 737 Max.

He promised the company could “be better”.

Four years later, Boeing’s corporate culture is once again under scrutiny, after another serious incident involving a Max exposed critical weaknesses within the company.

Calhoun will apologise for past failures. He will insist the situation is under control, that robust action is being taken, that safety is the priority.

Will the senators actually believe him? They’ve heard all of this before.

New whistleblower allegations may also lead to difficult questions.

For Calhoun, who leaves Boeing at the end of the year, it’s going to be a deeply uncomfortable session.

An emotional press conference from family members of people killed on Boeing planes in 2018 and 2019 has just wrapped up ahead of the hearing.

The families, many of whom travelled long distances to attend, are perhaps the starkest reminder that the concerns about Boeing are not new.

“The reason we are still coming to protest and speak out is because Boeing has not improved its safety,” said Nadia Milleron, whose daughter Samya Stumo was killed on the March 2019 Ethiopia Airlines flight.

They are pushing for the Department of Justice to criminally prosecute the firm, arguing that the Alaska Airlines blowout in January showed the company did not follow through on promises to change.

Others spoke of wanting to confront CEO David Calhoun.

“Calhoun … did you hear my daughter cry?” asked Clariss Moore, who lost her daughter on the Ethiopia flight.

While we don’t know exactly what questions David Calhoun will face from lawmakers, we do know what he will say to start the hearing.

Boeing shared its CEO’s written testimony on Monday.

Calhoun will start with an apology to those who lost family and friends on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.

The fatal crashes of those Boeing aircrafts in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people.

“I want to personally apologize, on behalf of everyone at Boing. We are deeply sorry for your losses,” Calhoun will tell the subcommittee.

Some family members of those who died on these flights are expected to be in attendance today.

He also plans to say that Boeing is “committed to making sure every employee feels empowered to speak up if there is a problem”, and that he admits the company’s culture is “far from perfect”.

Those remarks are response to whistleblower Sam Salehpour - an engineer at Boeing who told this same subcommittee in April that he had been harassed and threatened after raising concerns about the safety of Boeing’s planes.

Image source, Getty Images

Dave Calhoun’s appearance on Capitol Hill today is a reminder of the last time a Boeing chief executive was hauled before Congress to testify.

Then-boss Dennis Muilenburg faced lawmakers in October 2019, after two fatal accidents on Boeing planes killed 346 people.

Then, lawmakers accused Boeing of concealing issues with a part of the 737 Max – later implicated in the crashes - from regulators.

Like Calhoun will do today, Muilenburg offered apologies and said Boeing was learning from its mistakes, while trying to stick up for the company.

Just a few months later, he was out of a job.

The concern that Boeing did not follow through on its promises to change is one of the drivers of the frustration and anger likely to be on display today.

Image source, Getty Images

Since the 2018 and 2019 crashes, family members of those killed, some of whom are still working to resolve legal claims against the firm, have kept a close eye on Boeing - and used their voices to focus regulators and the media on problems at the company.

Several are planning to attend the hearing today.

Zipporah Kuria, who lost her father in the 2019 crash of a Boeing 737 MAX8 jet, is one of them.

“I flew from England to Washington, DC, to hear in person what the Boeing CEO has to say to the Senate and to the world about any safety improvements made at that corporation,” she said in a statement ahead of the hearing.

“I also continue to press the US government to hold Boeing and its corporate executives criminally responsible for the deaths of 346 people. We will not rest until we see justice.”

Ahead of the hearing, the Senate shared a report, external detailing reports from whistleblowers who have come forward in recent weeks.

It included new claims, including from Sam Mohawk, who currently works for Boeing as a quality assurance investigator.

He told the committee in May that the company was so overwhelmed by faulty 737 Max parts that it stored them inside, against proper procedures, and sometimes lost track of them.

He said at one point last year, when warned that regulators would be conducting an inspection, the company even tried to hide the improperly stored parts.

The accounts "paint a troubling picture of a company that prioritises speed of manufacturing and cutting costs over ensuring the quality and safety of aircraft", the report said.

Concerns about Boeing's attitudes toward safety and quality control conditions in its factories are not new, however.

Image source, Getty

Dave Calhoun has been chief executive of Boeing since 2020.

When he started in the role, Boeing was in crisis, reeling from the aftermath of the fatal 2018 and 2019 crashes of Boeing planes.

Regulators had grounded the 737 Max and the firm was facing a criminal probe alongside a loss of confidence in Washington and among the flying public.

Four years later, the crisis continues.

Unlike his predecessor, Calhoun, formerly an executive at General Electric and the private equity firm Blackstone, has appeared to retain the confidence of the company’s board, which recommended him for a $33m pay package for 2023, saying he had brought a “focus on safety, quality and transparency” that was “exactly what Boeing needed”.

But his appointment never satisfied many of the company’s critics, who said that as a board member since 2009, he shared blame for the catastrophes.

After the door blowout in January, calls for his removal increased.

In March, Calhoun said he would step down by the end of the year, clearing the way for a fresh leader.

What he says today will shape how he is remembered.

The Boeing CEO will face US lawmakers who are part of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI).

The panel has a broad authority on what it investigates and is part of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.

The subcommittee started an inquiry into Boeing after whistleblowers raised concerns about safety and quality control.

That led to a hearing in April in which current quality engineer at Boeing, Sam Salehpour, claimed there was a culture of retaliation against employees who raised safety concerns.

PSI chairman Richard Blumenthal said Boeing needs to restore public trust.

“Years of putting profits ahead of safety, stock price ahead of quality, and production speed ahead of responsibility has brought Boeing to this moment of reckoning, and its hollow promises can no longer stand,” he said.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Boeing CEO David Calhoun as he faces questions from US lawmakers about the company's safety and quality control.

The hearing is titled: “Boeing’s broken safety culture” and starts at 14:00 ET (19:00BST).

We will have a live stream, which you can watch by pressing "watch live" at the top of this page.

The Boeing CEO, who will leave his role at the end of the year, was summoned to give evidence after whistleblowers made a number of serious allegations.

The company has increasingly come under pressure from regulators since an incident in January when an emergency exit door blew off a new Boeing 737 Max shortly after take-off.

It cast a harsh spotlight on the aerospace giant's corporate culture and attitude to safety.

Five years ago Boeing faced one of the biggest scandals in its history, after two new 737 Max planes crashed in almost identical accidents that killed a total of 346 people.

The cause was flawed flight control software, details of which the company was accused of deliberately concealing from regulators.