WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N) Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg will acknowledge on Tuesday that the aircraft manufacturer made mistakes, as he appears at a congressional hearing on two 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people, according to written testimony made public on Monday.
“We have learned and are still learning from these accidents, Mr. Chairman. We know we made mistakes and got some things wrong,” Muilenburg will tell the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee.
The testimony, which was first reported by Reuters and made public later on Monday, added that the company had made improvements to the now-grounded MAX 737 airplane “that will ensure that accidents like these never happen again.”
Muilenburg, who was stripped of his title as Boeing chairman by the board earlier this month, will also testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday.
U.S. airlines have canceled flights into January and February because of the grounding and the Federal Aviation Administration is not expected to approve the 737 MAX’s ungrounding until December at the earliest.
“We also know we can and must do better,” Muilenburg’s testimony says. It also expresses “deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones” of those killed, noting the hearing would be taking place on the anniversary of the crash of Lion Air Flight 610 in Indonesia that killed 189 people. He added that when the 737 MAX returns, “it will be one of the safest airplanes ever to fly.”
In March, after a 737 MAX crash of Ethiopian Airlines 302 killed 157 people, the plane was grounded worldwide.
