In a recent U.S. Senate Commerce committee hearing, Senator Reverend Warnock underscored the need to address the culture of outsourcing and its implications on aviation safety

The Wednesday hearing followed high-profile aviation safety incidents, and focused on the findings from the Congressionally-mandated Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) Expert Review Panel report addressing safety concerns and safety culture at Boeing

Senator Reverend Warnock: “There are many words for this, you can call it delegating, subcontracting, reassigning, at the end of the day it’s outsourcing. Outsourcing key responsibilities, none more important than safety oversight to someone else”

Watch Senator Reverend Warnock at Wednesday’s hearing  HERE

Washington, D.C. – Last week, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), a member of the Senate Commerce committee, lamented the culture of outsourcing regulatory oversight in aviation—and its implications on consumer safety—while questioning a panel of aviation industry and safety experts. The April 17 hearing followed a recent series of high-profile safety incidents in the aviation industry, on the ground and in the air. During his questioning, the Senator highlighted the issue of companies outsourcing key oversight and manufacturing responsibilities that could potentially lead to aviation accidents.

“There are many words for this, you can call it delegating, subcontracting, reassigning, at the end of the day it’s outsourcing. Outsourcing key responsibilities, none more important than safety oversight to someone else,” said Senator Reverend Warnock. “I’d submit that while we are focused on Boeing, this is not just a Boeing problem, this is far too common across aviation systems and its suppliers. […] Congress must take a serious look at this culture of outsourcing.”  

The hearing examined the findings and recommendations from the Congressionally-mandated Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) final report, which examined the Boeing Company’s ODA, safety culture, and capability to perform FAA-delegated functions. Senator Warnock questioned the expert panel on the findings of the report. The panel was made up by Dr. Javier de Luis, lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Dr. Tracy Dillinger, manager for safety culture and human factors, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and Dr. Najmedin Meshkati, professor, University of Southern California, Aviation Safety and Security program.

Watch the Senator’s full remarks and line of questioning  HERE.

See below a transcript of key exchanges between Senator Warnock and the panel:

Senator Reverend Warnock: “There are many words for this, you can call it delegating, subcontracting, reassigning, at the end of the day it’s outsourcing. Outsourcing key responsibilities, none more important than safety oversight to someone else.”

“I submit that while we are focused on Boeing, this is obviously not just a Boeing problem, this is far too common across aviation systems and its suppliers. Whether the result of poor leadership, a focus on production targets, profit margins at all costs, even the costs of safety, or some combination of both. Congress must take a serious look at this culture of outsourcing and its safety implications.”

“What more can Boeing do to improve its safety culture and our own responsibility for the safety of its products?” 

“Dr. Tracy Dillinger: “Thank you, Senator, the panel focused a great deal on safety culture. There is so much that they could be doing.”

“Part of it has to do with the timing and if they were to accelerate the efforts, the panel thinks that would be beneficial. There has been a very soft start to that, to implementing the training, to getting feedback from employees via their own surveys, to providing workshops, to focusing specifically on training at different levels.”

“There multiple ways they could be going after that, and as they look at more comprehensive way were they really dive in and in a more timely way address that, the panel felt that that would be important and it was in our recommendations.”