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Boeing CEO Defends His Safety Record, Spars With Senators And Apologizes To Crash Victims’ Relatives
During a bruising Senate hearing on Tuesday, Boeing CEO David Calhoun defended the company’s safety record while members accused him of prioritizing profits over safety, failing to protect whistleblowers, and even receiving excessive pay.
Relatives of victims killed in two Boeing 737 Max plane tragedies were in the room, some holding photos of their loved ones to remind the CEO of the dangers. Calhoun began his speech by standing, turning to face the families, and apologizing “for the grief that we have caused,” pledging to prioritize safety.
Calhoun’s testimony before Congress was the first by a high-ranking Boeing official since a panel blew off a 737 Max on an Alaska Airlines flight in January. The event did not result in significant injuries but aroused new concerns about the company’s best-selling commercial aircraft.
The tone of the hearing before the Senate investigations subcommittee was established hours earlier when the panel released a 204-page report containing additional charges from a whistleblower who expressed concern that defective parts were being used in 737s. The whistleblower is the latest in a long line of current and former Boeing employees who have expressed concerns about the company’s manufacturing practices, which federal regulators are investigating.
Boeing | AP News Image
Boeing CEO Defends His Safety Record, Spars With Senators And Apologizes To Crash Victims’ Relatives
“This hearing is a moment of reckoning,” subcommittee chairman Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., declared. “It’s about a company, a once iconic company, that somehow lost its way.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., blamed Calhoun, claiming that the man who became CEO in January 2020 was too focused on the bottom line.
“You are cutting corners, you are eliminating safety procedures, you are sticking it to your employees, you are cutting back jobs because you are trying to squeeze very piece of profit you can out of this company,” Hawley stated in a higher tone. “You are strip-mining Boeing.”
Hawley repeatedly cited Calhoun’s $32.8 million salary from last year and questioned why the CEO had not resigned.
“Senator, I’m going to see this through. I’m proud to have taken this position. I’m pleased of our safety record, and I’m proud of our Boeing employees,” said Calhoun, who has announced his resignation by the end of the year.
Hawley interrupted. “You’re proud of the safety record?” he asked, perplexed.
“I am proud of every action we have taken,” Calhoun said.
Senators grilled Calhoun on allegations that Boeing managers penalized employees who raised safety concerns. They asked the CEO if he had ever spoken with any whistleblowers. He said he hadn’t but agreed it was a nice idea.
The latest whistleblower, Sam Mohawk, a quality assurance investigator at Boeing’s 737 assembly facility outside Seattle, told the subcommittee that “nonconforming” parts — those that could be defective or not properly documented — could end up in 737 Max aircraft.
Mohawk alleged that Boeing suppressed evidence after the Federal Aviation Administration informed the business that it planned to inspect the factory in June 2023.
“Once Boeing received such a notice, it ordered the majority of the (nonconforming) parts that were being stored outside to be moved to another location,” Mohawk stated in the report. “Approximately 80% of the parts were moved to avoid the watchful eyes of the FAA inspectors.”
Mohawk stated that the parts, which included rudders, wing flaps, and other components necessary for aircraft control, were later returned or lost.
A Boeing spokeswoman stated that the firm received the subcommittee report late Monday night and is evaluating the claims.
The FAA stated that it would “thoroughly investigate” the allegations. A spokeswoman stated that the government has received more reports of safety issues from Boeing personnel since the January 5 rupture on the Alaska Airlines Max.
The 737 Max has a troublesome history. After Max jets crashed in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019, killing 346 people each, the FAA and other agencies grounded the aircraft for more than a year and a half. The Justice Department is considering prosecuting Boeing for breaking the terms of a 2021 settlement over charges that the corporation misled regulators who authorized the plane.
Mohawk told the Senate hearing that the quantity of problematic parts has increased dramatically since production of the Max resumed following the incidents. He claimed that the increase prompted superiors to instruct him and other employees to “cancel” documents indicating that the parts were unsuitable for plane installation.
Following the mid-air burst of a plug covering an emergency exit on an Alaska Airlines plane in January, the FAA temporarily grounded certain Max flights. The agency and the National Transportation Safety Board began separate investigations into Boeing, which are still ongoing.
Boeing | AP News Image
Boeing CEO Defends His Safety Record, Spars With Senators And Apologizes To Crash Victims’ Relatives
Calhoun stated that Boeing has responded to the Alaska tragedy by reducing production, encouraging employees to raise safety problems, shutting down assembly lines daily to allow workers to discuss safety, and appointing a former Navy admiral to conduct a quality review. Late last month, Boeing delivered an improvement plan requested by the FAA.
Calhoun defended the company’s safety culture, admitting it “is far from perfect.”
The drumbeat of bad news for Boeing has continued throughout the last week. The FAA said it was looking into how falsely documented titanium parts ended up in Boeing’s supply chain; the company revealed that fasteners were incorrectly installed on the fuselages of some jets, and federal officials examined “substantial” damage to a Southwest Airlines 737 Max following an unusual mid-flight control issue.
During the hearing, Howard McKenzie, Boeing’s top engineer, stated that the problem with the Southwest airliner, which he did not describe in detail, was limited to that plane.
Blumenthal first requested Calhoun’s appearance before the Senate subcommittee when another whistleblower, a Boeing quality engineer, claimed that manufacturing flaws were posing safety hazards on two of Boeing’s largest jets, the 787 Dreamliner and the 777. He stated that the corporation needed to explain why the public should believe in Boeing’s work.
Boeing denied the whistleblower’s assertions, claiming that comprehensive testing and inspections revealed none of the issues the engineer had foreseen.
Boeing | AP News Image
Boeing CEO Defends His Safety Record, Spars With Senators And Apologizes To Crash Victims’ Relatives
Last month, the Justice Department found that Boeing breached a 2021 settlement that protected the firm from fraud charges for allegedly deceiving regulators who approved the 737 Max. According to a senior department official, Boeing failed to implement steps to detect and prevent future infractions of anti-fraud rules.
Prosecutors have until July 7 to decide what they will do next. Blumenthal claimed that there is “mounting evidence” that the firm should be penalized.
Families of the victims of the Max crashes have frequently urged the Justice Department to punish the business and its leaders. They want a federal judge in Texas to overturn the 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement or DPA — effectively a plea deal — that allowed Boeing to escape prosecution for fraud in connection with the Max.
Catherine Berthet, whose daughter Camille perished in the second disaster, stated outside the Capitol on Tuesday that despite having three years to improve their safety process, they failed to do so. “Now they have to be made accountable.”
SOURCE – (AP)
Microsoft’s online gaming and digital media network, Xbox Live, experienced a massive outage Tuesday, and thousands of customers reported issues accessing it.
According to monitoring site Downdetector, user-reported Xbox Live difficulties began to surge at 2:15 p.m. ET Tuesday. At 2:25 p.m., the site had received over 23,000 outage reports, with more than three-fourths indicating login troubles. Some Xbox Live customers reported getting an error message indicating that the service was undergoing “scheduled maintenance.”
Xbox | XBox Image
Xbox Live Goes Down In Nearly Seven-Hour Outage
Other Microsoft-operated services, such as Minecraft and the Microsoft Store, also received many user issue reports on Downdetector.
The official Xbox Support account on X stated at 2:55 p.m. ET, “We are aware that some users have been disconnected from Xbox Live. We are conducting an investigation!” The notice led visitors to the Xbox status page, which was later modified to indicate that a serious outage of the “Account & Profile” service was reported at 2:07 p.m. ET.
Xbox
Xbox Live Goes Down In Nearly Seven-Hour Outage
“You may be unable to sign in to your Xbox profile, disconnected while signed in, or experiencing other related issues,” the statement on the Xbox status website read. “Features that require sign-in like most games, apps and social activity won’t be available.”
To play online games and access additional experiences on the Xbox console, Windows PC, and Xbox mobile apps, users must first create an Xbox Live account (which is free).
SOURCE – Variety
(CTN News) – General Access Solutions, the company that owns the patent, has been ordered to collect $847 million from Verizon, a major telecommunications carrier in the United States.
According to the information that was provided by The Register, a federal jury in East Texas ordered Verizon to pay General Access the money that was owing to it.
This was stated in the material. The reason for this was that General Access had broken two patents, which led to this situation. As a consequence of this change.
For General Access, Verizon is now responsible for making payments.
According to the decision that was handed down by the court a week ago, the total amount is comprised of a “reasonable royalty” of $583 million for infringing on US Patent No. 7,230,931 (the ‘931) patent, as well as an additional $264 million for infringing on the other patent, which is 9,426,794 (‘794).
The total amount in question is $583 million. The sum in dispute comprises a total of 583 million dollars. Five hundred and eighty-three million dollars is the entire amount that is under question.
According to the allegations, Verizon has committed a violation of the patents that General Access possesses which pertain to the technologies of 5G and hotspots. These patents are related to the technologies that are accessible to the general public without restriction.
General Access was the purchaser of the patents, which had been developed by Raze Technologies, the firm that had bought them. On the other hand, General Access said that some components of Verizon’s 5G wireless networks, smartphone hotspots, wireless home routers, and MiFi devices are in breach of the company’s intellectual property rights.
Raze Technologies was the company that successfully completed the acquisition of the patents offered by General Access.
2001 was the year that both patent applications were initially submitted to the appropriate authorities. The year in which everything began was the year in question.
In the initial complaint that the firm has submitted, it says that the base station technology that Verizon has been deploying is in violation of the 931 patent that it possesses.
This is stated in the complaint that the company has filed. As an additional point of disagreement, the business asserts that the wireless devices produced by Verizon that are capable of receiving 4G and 5G cell signals are in violation of its ‘794 patent. This is due to the fact that these devices route information to mobile stations by abusing 802.11 WiFi communications protocols. This is an additional contentious factor to consider.
In answer to a question that was posed about the patents, Verizon provided a statement in which it suggested that the patents were invalid due to the fact that there was either no written description or the patents were not “fully enabled.”
Verizon’s response to the inquiry is as follows:
According to the official response, this was the response. On the other hand, the members of the jury did not accept this line of thinking in any manner, shape, or form and refused to accept it in any way.
Verizon disclosed that the company will be appealing the verdict in a statement that was issued to DCD. The statement was sent to provide information about the case.
Despite the fact that we have a great deal of respect for the court system, we are unable to express our agreement with the verdict that was reached by this particular jury. As part of our efforts to reverse the verdict that was handed down today, we are going to file an appeal, and we are also going to continue searching for administrative remedies.
In line with a statement that was released by a spokesperson for Verizon, this does not imply the fact that the situation has been resolved.
According to Law 360, Ericsson, a Swedish component manufacturer, is also vehemently opposed to the verdict. The business has declared that it will support any challenge that Verizon takes forward, and it has stated that it will defend itself against any other challenge. The company Ericsson is widely recognized as a frontrunner in the business when it comes to the creation of components.
SEE ALSO:
To navigate the climate proposal, BlackRock employs a new voting policy.
Alibaba will discontinue its data center operations in India and Australia.
Google Falling Short Of Important Climate Target, Cites Electricity Needs Of AI
(VOR News) – The $10.5 trillion money BlackRock manager’s assets will vote differently on shareholder proposals than the funds that have specific climate change mandates. This is BlackRock’s most recent attempt to navigate the political rift over decarbonization.
The world’s biggest asset management said in a statement on Tuesday that clients of funds with a climate focus will now be allowed to voice their opinions aggressively in shareholder resolutions pertaining to decarbonization.
All of BlackRock’s funds are susceptible to climate risk.
Still, funds that follow its recently released “climate and decarbonization stewardship guidelines” will evaluate whether or not companies are really attempting to keep the rise in world average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels.
The Paris Agreement, which over 200 nations joined, set this goal as the optimal threshold.
The head of BlackRock, Larry Fink, was a vocal early proponent of integrating sustainability into the investment process. In his letter to investors for the 2020 annual meeting, he raised the topic of climate change, but he has subsequently faced criticism from all sides.
With the new stewardship policy, BlackRock is attempting to reconcile US regulations compelling fund managers to focus on financial returns with the expectations of its clients in Europe and the US, who want the company to promote decarbonization.
In a letter to clients, Joud Abdel Majeid, Global Head of Stewardship at BlackRock, said that the policy will start to apply to 83 funds in the fourth quarter. $150 billion worth of assets are held by these funds, all of which are headquartered in Europe.
Conservatives in the US are starting to push back, denouncing the movement as “woke capitalism.” This is true even if a large number of progressives and investors in Europe favor advancing the effort to limit global warming as quickly as is practical.
The boards of directors of funds with a special responsibility for climate change in the United States and Asia will be asked if they would like to carry out the policy later this year. The climate-related option that BlackRock intends to offer will also be available to clients who invest through independently managed accounts.
“BlackRock will continue to undertake our stewardship responsibilities with a sole focus on advancing clients’ long-term financial returns in line with our benchmark policies,” Abdel Majeid stated.
“BlackRock will continue to handle all other funds.”
As a result, the climate-focused funds might adopt stances on business votes related to fossil fuels and other decarbonization-related issues that are completely at odds with those of the other funds in the group. They will follow BlackRock’s primary criteria for additional environmental, social, and governance considerations in all other cases.
Since the spike in energy prices that coincided with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, BlackRock has been the subject of intense political discourse. Conservatives have tried to limit or boycott the company’s offerings. Simultaneously, proponents of climate change expressed their annoyance at the company’s sharp drop in backing for shareholder resolutions related to the issue.
Since then, the asset manager has claimed that a large number of recently passed shareholder resolutions by businesses were unduly prescriptive and did not support customers’ financial interests.
BlackRock withdrew its support from Climate Action 100+, an investor group founded to motivate companies to combat global warming, at the beginning of this year. Instead of carrying on with global participation, it chose to move membership to its smaller foreign subsidiary.
BlackRock has also implemented a policy that gives institutional clients and some retail investors authority over how their shares are voted on proxy matters.
Investors may choose to entrust BlackRock with their vote or they can choose from over a dozen policies created by proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis through the “voting choice” scheme.
SEE ALSO:
Google Falling Short Of Important Climate Target, Cites Electricity Needs Of AI
Under Pressure On Plane Safety, Boeing Is Buying Stressed Supplier Spirit For $4.7 Billion
Alibaba will discontinue its data center operations in India and Australia.
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