Washington: Boeing Co.’s Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg has agreed to his first scheduled appearance before Congress to discuss the 737 Max, the grounded jetliner involved in two fatal crashes.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which has been conducting an investigation into the 737 Max, announced on Friday that Muilenburg will appear along with John Hamilton, the company’s chief engineer for its Commercial Airplanes division, and Jennifer Henderson, the chief 737 pilot.
The hearing will take place on October 30, one day after the first anniversary of the 737 Max crash that occurred off the coast of Indonesia. A second Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max went down on March 10 after departing from Addis Ababa. The crashes killed a total of 346 people.
The company is under a microscope because of a design feature on the plane that malfunctioned in both crashes, prompting it to automatically and repeatedly to drive down the jets’ nose. Pilots became overwhelmed and both planes went into steep dives from which they didn’t recover. Boeing is redesigning the system.
“Boeing has accepted the invitation to testify,” the company said on Friday in a statement. “We will continue to cooperate with Congress and regulatory authorities as we focus on safely returning the Max to service.”
