Senate panel grills Boeing CEO over flaws in MAX jet

US Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state, asked if the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Boeing had "rushed to certify the MAX". She noted, "To date, we haven't gotten all those answers."

Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi and chairman of the committee, said: "Both of these accidents were entirely preventable." He invited family members to stand and hold up large photos of relatives killed in the crashes.

Wicker questioned the CEO over the company's delay in releasing the messages in which a former test pilot described erratic behavior of a simulator version of the MCAS software. He said the messages revealed a "disturbing level of casualness and flippancy".

"One of the things we've learned ... is we need to provide additional information on MCAS to pilots," Muilenburg said.

Senator Jon Tester of Montana noted Boeing had won approval from the FAA to avoid having to add new crew alerts because it would have been expensive.

"It wouldn't have happened if FAA would have been doing their job, and it also wouldn't have happened if you had known what the hell was going on," he said. "I would walk before I would get on a 737 MAX. I would walk. There is no way ... You shouldn't be cutting corners and I see corners being cut."

US airlines flying the MAX have canceled flights through January and are taking a financial hit. Returning the jet to commercial service is vital to Boeing's future because the MAX, priced at about $135 million each, is Boeing's top seller.

Muilenburg testified that the company is in the "final stages" of testing the revised software and seeking recertification for the jet. His testimony before the committee was his first appearance before Congress since the crashes. He is scheduled to appear Wednesday before the US House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

"We have learned and are still learning from these accidents," the CEO said Tuesday. "We know we made mistakes and got some things wrong. We own that, and we are fixing them. We have developed improvements to the 737 MAX to ensure that accidents like these never happen again. We also are learning deeper lessons that will result in improvements in the design of future airplanes."