GEOFF BENNETT: Outgoing Boeing CEO David Calhoun faced tough questioning on Capitol Hill today, as lawmakers raised concerns about the company's safety culture and quality control practices.

He spoke to Congress for the first time since January, when the door plug panel of an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 blew out mid-flight, one in a series of safety incidents involving a Boeing aircraft.

Our aviation correspondent, Miles O'Brien, has been watching all of this.

And he joins us now.

So, Miles, fill us in on the basics of what Calhoun came to do and say today.

What was he trying to accomplish?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, Geoff, Dave Calhoun probably knew, as most everybody did, that he wasn't going to score a win today.

So a lot of this was about the tone and tenor and how he characterized the overall situation.

He began with an act of contrition.

He turned his back to the committee and faced several family members of those who lost their lives in those two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019.

Then he turned back around and told the committee, Boeing is doing better.

DAVE CALHOUN, CEO, Boeing: Much has been said about Boeing's culture.

We have heard those concerns loud and clear.

Our culture is far from perfect, but we are taking action and we are making progress.

We understand the gravity, and we're committed to moving forward with transparency and accountability.

MILES O'BRIEN: He spoke broadly about Boeing doing better.

He said the company is inculcating safety in the work force, revamping its engineering, and, most importantly, he repeated it several times, the company is set to reacquire Spirit AeroSystems, now a subsidiary, but was once a part of Boeing, which builds the 737 fuselages.

None of this did much to resonate with the committee, frankly.

And it certainly didn't do much for those families who were in the gallery there listening to the hearing testimony.

Before the hearing began, they held a news conference, and there was a lot of anger.

ADNAAN STUMO, Brother of Victim: Strengthening the safety of the flying public is important, but there needs to be criminal charges for the people at the top, the people in the driver's seat who are responsible for 346 deaths, including that of my sister and every single face that you see here.

ZIPPORAH KURIA, Daughter of Victim: My question to Congress even today is, why pay attention now?

Why pay attention now?

Why not for the last five years that we have continually fought?

We have been a muffled scream that has been screaming, and no one has been paying attention.

GEOFF BENNETT: Hmm.

Miles, when the victims' family members speak of criminal charges, what exactly are they talking about?

How would that work?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, these are criminal charges which evolve from those two crashes.

Essentially, the charges are conspiracy to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration.

Boeing cut a deal with the Department of Justice, paid $2.5 billion, and for a period of time of amnesty promised to clean up its act.

And now the Department of Justice is indicating that it has not lived up to its bargain.

Boeing says it has, however, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, you have got lawmakers on that panel, both Democrat and Republican, who say that they're really troubled by what they see as a continuing pattern of problems.

Tell us about that.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, it was really bipartisan in the criticism he received.

Let's hear a little bit from Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.

SEN. MAGGIE HASSAN (D-NH): I hear you talking about it.

But what we have been trying to get to is, how is it that you had a 2020 failure, a 2024 failure, the failures I have just read about?

So there were 737 failures, now these 787 ones.

You talk about safety and culture, but you aren't answering the question about what the root causes are here.

GEOFF BENNETT: When Senator Hassan speaks of root causes, what is she addressing directly?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, the allegations from the committee and elsewhere are that, in Boeing's pursuit of competition with Airbus, that the company sacrificed safety for profits, that it cut a lot of corners.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri really laid into Calhoun on top of that, specifically pointing out his $33 million salary.

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): You're focused on exactly what you were hired to do, which is that you're cutting corners, you are eliminating safety procedures, you are sticking it to your employees, you are cutting back jobs, because you're trying to squeeze every piece of profit you can out of this country -- this company.

You're strip-mining it.

I don't think the problem is with the employees, actually.

DAVE CALHOUN: Oh, it's not.

It is not.

I agree.

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY: No, I think the problem is with you.

You.

It's the C-suite.

It's the management.

It's what you have done to this company.

That's where the problem is.

The problem's at the top.

MILES O'BRIEN: So, Geoff, Hawley asked Calhoun why he hasn't outright resigned from his job as CEO.

And Calhoun said he was very proud of his tenure.

He's proud of the safety record of Boeing.

And he said he was proud of every action we have taken.

There was a lot of skepticism among Senator Hawley when that statement came across.

Calhoun is leaving his job as CEO of Boeing at the end of the year -- Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: So what comes next for this company, then, Miles?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, it's not an easy path, is it?

We don't know who is going to succeed Calhoun in that position.

And many of the problems which have been laid out there will take quite some time to improve.

It's difficult to change the culture of a giant corporation such as Boeing.

And this is a company that had a culture for many, many years built around the core of engineering, where safety was first.

And, somehow, it has lost its way.

And turning that around is not going to be easy.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the minute-and-a-half we have left, Miles, Dave Calhoun stays on the job through the end of the year.

Is Boeing or anybody else, any sort of aviation observers, do they have their eye on somebody who could succeed him?

MILES O'BRIEN: No names have surfaced.

What's interesting to think about as well, Geoff, is, could there be a competitor that emerges from this duopoly of Airbus and Boeing?

It does seem as if there might be an opportunity there for another corporation to step in and build large airliners.

Could it come from Bombardier in Canada, perhaps the Embraer in Brazil?

And, of course, the Chinese are building airliners and there's a huge opportunity for them on the world stage to step into this gap.

Now, whether those airliners would ever be approved to fly in the United States is an open question, but it's a very dynamic situation marching forward.

And there may be an opportunity for another company to step in and meet demand.

GEOFF BENNETT: That is our aviation correspondent, Miles O'Brien.

Miles, thanks so much.

We appreciate it.

MILES O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Geoff.