This hearing will come to order. Thank you all for being here today. One year ago today, lyon air 610 crashed into the sea in jakarta indonesia. All 189 people on board were killed. A few months later, an Ethiopian Air flight departed, and flight 302 experienced problems shortly after takeoff and crashed. All 157 persons on board died. Both of these accidents were entirely preventible. We cannot fathom the pain experienced by the families of those 346 human beings who were lost. Many family members are here today and we appreciate their attendance. I appreciate many of them meeting with members of the committee over time. As chairman of this committee, i promise their loved ones were working to obtain a full answer as to how to prevent future tragedies. These families deserve answers, accountability and action. And the public deserves no less. The type of aircraft involved in both accidents is a 737 max 8. Manufactured by boeing. International aviation safety regulators began grounding the max the day after the ethiopian crash. On march 13th, federal Aviation Administration formally grounded the aircraft in the United States. The maxs return to service is contingent on boeings work with the faa to work on fixes to the mcast system. International regulators also need to be verified that it is safe to fly. As a certification process continues, many questions remain about boeings actions. And the faas actions during the design, development, and certification processes, as well as the operation of the max. Todays hearing is divided into two panels. Let me know for senators, that the committee will follow regular order in recognition of both panels. The five minute rule will be enforced strictly. Denn Dennis Mullenberg will testify. He is joined by a witness who will provide Technical Expertise. Robert somwalt and chris hart. Chairman somwalt oversees the ntsb which recently released recommendations regarding the max 8 certifications. The jetr has submitted recommendations to the faa. He is a private citizen today who agreed to lead the jetr. We have many concerns that boeing should address today. We need to know if boeing and the faa rushed to certify the max. In particular, critics have focused on the mcast development and testing. Boeing has been criticized with the communication with the faa, particularly after the system was modified to activate at lower air speeds. The jetr also criticized the faa for relying on outdated regulations, guidance and certification procedures and foiling to incorporate realistic human everybody into his assumptions. Boeing and faas assumptions were called into question about pilot reaction during mcast activation. These questions were specially important for stressful situations with multiple alerts going off in the cockpit. Our witnesses should address the company and safety regulators actions regarding max certification in general and mcast in particular. The process for certifying the max necessitated a closed partnership between boeing and faa. Under a decades old system called Organization Design authorization, or oda, the faa has delegated certain certification activities to the oda holder. In this case, boeing. While the oda has been used to certify many aircraft over the years, some have criticized the system for permitting an inappropriately close relationship between companies and their safety regulator. Indeed, email correspondence dating from as early as 2015, between the maxs former chief technical pilot, mark fortner, and faa personnel released on october 18th reflect a disturbing level of casualness and flippancy that seem to corroborate these criticisms. I was disappointed to learn of a november, 2016, instant message conversation between mr. Fortner and a colleague in which he acknowledged misinforming the faa. Boeing should have notified the faa about that conversation immediately upon its discovery. Although faa is not testifying today, let me express my frustration with the agencys lack of responsiveness to my request dating back to april of this year for documents relevant to the 737 max as part of the investigation that i opened as chairman based on whistleblower disclosures. The relationship between regulating agencies and organizations they regulate is important. But so are the internal reforms that boeing has implemented. Witnesses should provide their views on whether or not reforms are needed. I invite mr. Mullenburg to describe the steps boeing is taking to improve aviation safety and to insure that technical experts never experience undue pressure to put profits and relationships ahead of safety. The committees oversight is not limited to past actions. The reviews note that future Aircraft Systems are likely to be even more complex and interdependent than current mode models. Managing interfaces between humans and machines will become even more important as automation increases. At the same time, commercial aviation is set to continue expanding around the globe. Many future pilots will fly in countries without the same training requirements and Safety Standards that we have in the United States. We welcome the witnesses thoughts on how to improve Design Development and certification in the future to account for these major changes. This hearing will by no means end our inquiry. Additional oversight hearings will be held. The committee will review the final lyon air report which was released on friday as well as the Ethiopian Airlines report. The committee will consider the recommendations and findings from all investigations and rooevz. I now recognize the distinguished Ranking Member, senator cantwell. I too want to take a moment and recognize the families who have lost loved ones in both the Ethiopian Airlines and lyon air tragedies, some of whom are here with us today. I cant imagine the loss and the enduring pain you must feel. I thank you for your vigilance on this issue, just as we have seen the families of other crashes help us for the future. These families, millions of Airline Passengers and 150,000 Aerospace Workers want to know what were doing to fix what went wrong and what did go wrong. To date, we havent gotten all those answers. Hopefully todays hearing will help provide some. But one thing is crystal clear. If you want to be the leader in aviation manufacturing, you have to be the leader in aviation safety. Aviation demand, especially for 737s is exploding to 101 growth over the next ten years. Something like 35,000 planes and 3 trillion. I think thats actually 20 years. We cannot have a race for commercial airplanes become a race to the bottom when it comes to safety. The company, the board, cannot prioritize profits over safety, safety always has to be job one. So it is troubling to hear that boeing may have skirted the faa certification process over a desire by airlines to have more fuel efficient planes but without Pilot Training. This issue of lowering standards is permeating through all of aviation. Were dealing with it here in the committee, my democratic colleagues have led the charge to try to stop companies coming here to say they dont want to have the same training for copilots on the regional jets because they dont have enough pilots or the issue my colleague has championed on rest requirements for cargo pilots having the same requirements for rest as passenger planes. Thank god captain sullenberger made it clear when youre in an emergency, the pilot and copilot dont have time a lot of time to communicate. Thats why today we need answers to how the first 737 max certification process was done, and we especially need transparency on this process of review before the 737 max is put in the air again. The public needs to know and fully understand what testing, what review, what processes were conducted both by boeing and the faa before this plane is put back in the air. We also want to know today about boeings Safety Culture. Whether boeing employees raised safety concerns that were not listened to. Whether there was enough testing and complex information into a cockpit alert system we all know was flawed. And whether there was even enough data presented to the faa. These are all questions that are important, including outsourcing of engineering and coding. There are many questions about software and cockpit information and overload. Laws are clear when it comes to the standards for certification. Yes, software and automation flight training, better rest requirements for pilots have all led to ten years between 2009 to 2018 as the safest ten years in aviation history. But more software and more automation without robust Third Party Testing and validation will lead us to where we are today. We should note that the last five aviation accidents have all involved this issue of automation and pilot response to automation. Whether its lyon air, ethiopian, the asiana, french or qua quantas 330 accidents, th. Thats why i introduced legislation with my colleagues to implement the recommendations of the ntsb safety board and the Inspector General report on Better Safety management systems, better cockpit prioritization and a new faa center of excellence on flight automation and human fatherctor. The faa needs the best engineers to stay ahead on this Human Behavior response to new automation. Were dealing i see people here on the transportation automobile side. Its the same issue in advanced vehicles. What automation exists and how do humans respond to it. I look forward to hearing about findings on improving the safety review process weeeeeincluded in this legislation. I would just say again, our sorrows are nothing like the families who are with us today. But i do want to know that 737 max accidents have struck at the heart of everyone in the northwest. Soon after the crashes, a seattle firefighter approached me and asked if i thought he could get a job at boeing. I want to go there and make sure we make the safety right. Everyone feels that way. Generation of workers have dedicated their lives to excellence and safety. This isnt a question about line workers, this is a question about a corporate view from chicago, whether there is enough attention to manufacturing and certification you should take offense to the fact that people say its a Great Company not being run correctly. So for the 346 people who trusted boeing without a Second Thought weer need to get this right. These families are counting on us. Thank you, mr. Chairman. You have submitted an extensive written statement. It will be entered in full in the record at this point. Youre now and i understand mr. Hamilton will not be making a formal statement. Mr. Mullenburg, youre recognized at this point to summarize your Opening Statement for five minutes. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Chairman wicker, Ranking Member cantwell, committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to join you today. We share your commitment to aviation safety. Before we start today, id like to speak directly to the families of the victims who are here with us. On behalf of myself and the boeing company, were sorry, deeply and truly sorry. As a husband and father myself, im heartbroken by your losses. I think about you and your loved ones every day, and i know our entire boeing team does as well. I know that probably doesnt offer much comfort and healing at this point, but i want you to know that we carry those memories with us every day. And every day that drives us to improve the safety of our airplanes and our industry. That will never stop. Im grateful and humbled to be here today and to be able to say these words to the families directly. I want to convey our absolute commitment to safety or commitment to learning. Our commitment to rebuilding the publics confidence in what we do. And to preventing accidents like this from ever ever happening again. We will never forget and thats our commitment Going Forward. Mr. Chairman, i know this committee has many questions about the max. Well do our best today to answer all of those questions. And while one of the accidents is still under investigation, we know both accidents involved the repeat activation of a Flight Control system called mcass which responded to erroneous signals from censors that measures the airplanes angle of attack. It will now compare information from both censors instead of one. Mcass will activate a single time. Third, mcass will never provide more input than a pilot can counteract using the control column alone. Pilots will have the ultimate to override mcass at any time. We spent over 100,000 enge thering and test hours. We have flown more than 800 test flights. I have flown on a couple of flights myself. This has taken longer as expected, but were committed to getting it right. During the process we worked closely with the faa and other regulators. We provided them documentation, had them fly the simulators, answered their questions and regulators should rigorously scrutinize the max and return to flight when theyre satisfied with its safety. The public deserves nothing less. Mr. Chairman, today and every day over five Million People will board a boeing airplane and fly safely to their destination. Decades of cooperation and the rigorous oversight of this committee have reduced accidents by over 95 . No number other than 0 accidents is ever acceptable. We can and must do better. Weve been challenged and changed by these accidents. Weve made mistakes and we got some things wrong. Were improving and were learning, and were continuing to learn. We established a permanent Safety Committee, stood up a Safety Organization, strengthened our engineering organization. Were helping to rebuild the communities and families impacted by the accidents. We have pledged 100 million to this effort and have hired Renowned Experts in this yaarea. No amount of money can bring back what was lost, but we can help the families meet their financial needs. Mr. Chairman, i started at boeing more than 30 years ago as a summer intern in seattle. I was a junior at Iowa State University studying engineering. Having grown up on a family farm in iowa. I was awe struck to work at the company that brought the jet age to the world and helphead land a person on the moon. Today, im still inspired by what boeing does and the remarkable men and women who are committed to its outstanding legacy. These heartbreaking accidents and the memories of the 346 lives lost are now a part of that legacy. Its our solemn duty to learn from them and we will. Recently, theres been much criticism of boeing and our culture. We understand and deserve this krutny. But i know the people of boeing. Theyre more than 150,000 of the most dedicated, honest, hard working men and women in the world. And their commitment to safety and quality is unparalyzed. We know our work demands the most excellence. Mr. Chairman . Thank you vurery much. During my Opening Statement, i mentioned an instant message conversation, and then a series of emails. The instant message conversation was between the 737 max chief technical pilot and a colleague. And it expresses concerns about the operation of the mcass. Boeing knew about this instant message for months but failed today share it with the faa until recently. With regard to the emails, again, mr. Fortner, the former max chief technical pilot, calls for removing any mention of the mcass Flight Control system from the flight crew operating manual. He talks about jedi mind tricking of regulators with at least one person who works for the faa. With regard to the instant message conversation, when were you made aware of the existence of the november 2016 messages . Mr. Chairman, as i recall i was made aware of that message earlier this year. It was part of a document gathering process in response to a government investigation. It was after the crashes . You were made aware of it this year . Sir, as i recall, i believe it was prior to the second crash was it your decision to wade wait months before disclosing this to the faa . At this point it had been identified as a document in response to an Ongoing Investigation and i relied on our council tool provide that to the appropriate authorities. Okay, what did the councsel tell you . Im going to supply it to the Justice Department or get it to the appropriate authorities . Mr. Chairman, i dont recall having a specific conversation about which authorities. Again, as part of the investigative process our intent to cooperate fully with the request and to provide that to the appropriate authorities, i think over this time period this year we provided on the order of half a million pages of documents in support of various requests do you agree this should have been provided to the faa . In retrospect. Senator, as i became familiar with the details of the document over the last few weeks, as i expressed our disappointments and concern with how this came to the faa, i think you heard the same from administrator dixon. I called and apologized for how this had come through the process. I was involved in the document production process but counted on our team to make sure the right authorities were notified. We should look to the team then. Boeing has now turned over all such safety related communications to the faa related to the 737 max . Senator, our Team Continues to cooperate with all request for documentation. Im sure that additional documents will be provided over time as theyre discovered, as would be normal to the process. Well cooperate fully with the request. It seems to me that a request shouldnt have to have been made with regard to that item of conversation, certainly. When did you become aware of the emails that i referred to in the second part of my question . About jedi mind tricking regulators. Senator, just