Boeing’s chief of commercial airplanes said workers at the company’s 737 airplane factory in Renton, Wash., will hold a one-day “quality stand down” on Thursday.

The aircraft maker is currently being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board following a midair blowout on one of its 737-9 MAX planes earlier this month.

What You Need To Know

  • Boeing will hold a "quality stand down" at its 737 factory in Renton, Wash., Thursday

  • During the one-day work stoppage, employees will receive hands-on training and offer feedback on how to improve safety

  • The announcement comes the same day a Boeing 757 lost a nose wheel on takeoff

  • The FAA and NTSB are investigating Boeing following a Jan. 5 incident when a Boeing 737-9 MAX lost a door panel midflight

  • The announcement came as Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun met with senators on Capitol Hill in the aftermath of the 737-9 MAX incident

“We have let down our airline customers and are deeply sorry for the significant disruption to them, their employees and their passengers,” Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief executive Stan Deal said in a statement Wednesday. “We are taking action on a comprehensive plan to bring these airplanes safely back to service and to improve our quality and delivery performance. We will follow the lead of the FAA and support our customers every step of the way.”

During Thursday’s quality stand down, the 737 factory’s production, delivery and support workers will stop work for the day to participate in quality improvement sessions. The work stoppage will allow “all teammates who touch the airplane to pause, evaluate what we’re doing, how we’re doing it and make recommendations for improvement,” Deal said.

Similar quality stand downs are scheduled for additional Boeing factories and assembly sites for all of the company’s airplanes. The upcoming sessions will provide hands-on training and collaboration to help identify what needs to be improved to improve quality.

Since the Jan. 5 incident, when a Boeing 737-9 MAX airplane lost a door panel midflight over Oregon, United Airlines and Alaska Airlines have reported finding loose bolts on some Max 9 planes. On Wednesday, a Delta Air Lines Boeing 757 plane lost a nose wheel before takeoff.

The announcement came as Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun met with senators on Capitol Hill in the aftermath of the 737-9 MAX incident. Speaking to reporters, Calhoun sought to reassure the American public that "we fly safe planes."

“We don’t put airplanes in the air that we don’t have 100% confidence in," Calhoun said. "I'm here today in the spirit of transparency ... to share everything I can with our Capitol Hill interests and answer all their questions, because they have a lot of them."

He would not answer further questions, only answering "NTSB," referring to the ongoing National Transportation Safety Board probe.

Calhoun met with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle on Wednesday, including Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee and represents the state where Boeing assembles the 737.

"The American flying public and Boeing line workers deserve a culture of leadership at Boeing that puts safety ahead of profits," Cantwell said.

Her panel, she said, will hold hearings aimed at probing "the root causes of these safety lapses."

“These are people's lives we're talking about," said Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican. "It is a miracle that somebody wasn't seriously injured, let alone killed, when the door the plane fell off. This is not a small thing, this is a big deal.”

Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan said that Calhoun told lawmakers "he takes full responsibility for this."

"The company does, he does personally, and [he] assured me that this is the most important issue ... safety. Safety, safety," Sullivan said. "They are working with the NTSB, FAA, Alaska Airlines to make sure these aircraft will be 100% safe."

On Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a recommendation for operators of Boeing 737-900ER aircraft to visually inspect their mid-air exit door plugs to ensure they are properly secured.

The FAA said the 900ER planes share an identical design for the part that failed on the Alaska Airlines flight. The agency noted that some 900-ER operators have reported finding bolt issues during maintenance inspections.

Last week, the FAA launched an investigation into the manufacturing practices and production lines at Boeing following the Jan. 5 incident. That investigation includes Spirit AeroSystems in Kansas, which reportedly makes 70% of the Max 9 fuselage.

The FAA has grounded all Max 9s while it inspects the planes for safety issues.

Days after the Alaska Airlines incident, the FAA said it was increasing oversight of Boeing’s production and manufacturing. It also launched an investigation into the company to determine if it failed to ensure completed products conformed to their approved design and were safe to fly.

Boeing has also increased inspections throughout its build process at its factory in Washington state as well as Spirit AeroSystems. The company’s inspections include the dispatch of an oversight group to Spirit’s facilities in Kansas to inspect installation of the door plugs that are used as plane panels in place of emergency door exits.