The chief executive of Boeing on Tuesday admitted that the aeroplane manufacturer got things wrong in the development of the 737 MAX airliner and deserved the scrutiny it is receiving.
Dennis Muilenburg told a Senate committee that the company had learned and is still learning from two crashes of 737 MAX airliners and a worldwide grounding of the aeroplane.
“We know we made mistakes and got some things wrong.
“We own that, and we are fixing them,” Muilenburg said, according to a transcript of his testimony published by CNN.
The 737 MAX was grounded in March after two crashes that killed 346 people.
The cause of the crashes appears to be linked to a software malfunction.
Muilenburg told the committee that Boeing had developed improvements to the 737 MAX “to ensure that accidents like these never happen again” and is learning deeper lessons that will result in improvement in the design of future aeroplanes.
He also admitted that airlines that buy Boeing planes and their pilots have told the company that it didn’t communicate enough about MCAS software system “and we’ve heard them.”
He pledged that when the 737 Max is returned to service, “it will be one of the safest aeroplanes ever to fly.”
It is unclear when global authorities will allow the jet to return to the skies and U.S. airlines do not expect it to fly before 2020.
The grounding has weighed on the company’s profits.
The company also has seen the departure of the top executive at its commercial plane unit.
