joining us live now to discuss his views is ed pearson, who is now executive director of the aviation watchdog group foundation for aviation safety. ed, thanks for talking with us. thanks for having me. i'm not sure we can hear you right now. i'm not sure if it's a microphone you want to check that real quick. can you hear me now? ah, i can hear you now. all right. fabulous. we got the connection. thanks, ed. so, what did you do at boeing? and how long ago was it? >> um, i worked in the, uh, 737 factory as a senior manager, and i retired in, uh, 2018, just prior to the first crash of the max. >> right. that was the first of the 787 eight max eight. right there were two fatal crashes that in the following year, it was actually the 730 7-8. >> but yes, there was one that crashed in, um, uh, august of 2018 and another one that crashed in march of 2019. >> and of course, those preceded the latest round of concern with that alaska airlines flight near portland. and you wrote an op ed in the la times this week, and you said you would absolutely not fly on a max plane right now. why why? >>

i want to bring in ed pearson, a boeing whistleblower, former boeing employee, who is the executive directoror the foundation for aviation safety. ed, you testified against boeing at the hearings for the max after they were grounded following two crashes in 2019. i'm curious, when you saw the video of this plane flying with a big gaping hole in the side, what was your reaction? >> well, thanks, phil, for having me on here. actually, i would like to say that this was no surprise, unfortunately. i know it's stunning for passengers, but for those of us who have been monitoring what's been going on for a while with the max, it wasn't a surprise, sadly. you know, as we discussed in the past, the company has struggled mightily with manufacturing and we've had over 20 production quality defects and it's hard to keep up with all of them. they keep getting reported and you have done reporting on this. this is, unfortunately, has been consistent. we've also had requests for engineering exemptions after, you know, two fatal crashes and 346 people died and a criminal investigation, and everything else,

ed pearson a former boeing employee turned sharp crit cot. >> it's completely unacceptable to leave loose bolts or anything like that. if one person makes a mistake, they might make a mistake on another plane and another plane. this is really disturbing. >> reporter: four times in the past two months pressurization warnings appeared on the jet involved and last just a minute before the plug flew out causing explosive depressurization. at least it wasn't cruising at 30,000 feet says the chair of the national transportation safety board. >> folks don't have seat belts on, they're going to restrooms. the flight attendants are providing service to passengers. we could have ended up with something so much more tragic, and we're really fortunate that that did not occur here. >> authorities say nobody was actually seated right next to the part where this plane blew open this way, so there is that. but amid the seriousness of all this, boeing held a staff-wide safety meeting today which the ceo pledged they would fully and trance apparently cooperate with all of the investigation. and he said boe

ed pearson is a boeing fact re manager.to the ceo of boeing and hillary vaughn yesterday. >> how do you win customers back who say they will never get on a boeing plane again because they don't feel safe? >> how do you get those customers back who say they are too scared to get on a boeing plane? you don't have any words of assurance for customers? >> we believe in our airplanes and feel they're safe airplanes, our people do. we have confidence in the safety of our airplanes and that's what all this is about. we fully understand the gravity. >> one of your planes fell apart in the sky. >> dana: there is a high amount of interest. ceo back on capitol hill. what do you think of things right now as the faa is saying we'll let the planes fly? >> good morning and actually, dana, i think it's a horrible decision and horrible idea. i feel like it is completely irresponsible. we found that there is many more airplanes that are having problems and we've been watching this for a long time. we think it is a terrible decision to even c

ed pearson is a former senior manager turned max whistleblower.arn bolts weren't put in a door panel? >> not at all. only thing surprising to us, we're thankful it wasn't a fatal crash. >> reporter: in a letter obtained exclusively by cbs news, senator tammy duckworth is demanding the faa deny the request for a waiver on the max. >> it is such a bold-faced attempt to put profits over the safety of the flying public, it astonishes me they would do this. >> reporter: tomorrow boeing will pause production at the 737 factory for a safety standdown focused on improving quality. >> boeing is better than this, flight 1282 should have never happened. >> reporter: boeing and spirit declined to comment on the post citing the ntsb investigation. they're aware of the post but cbs news cannot independently verify the claims. late today the faa announced it approved the inspection procedure for airlines that could lead to the max-9 being returned to service in coming days. faa however will not allow boeing to increase the production rate of the 737 max as it ha

ed pearson who testified before congress on the max 8 says he does not believe boeing has addressed its something wrong, boeing is supposed to catch it and supposed to make sure that that doesn't happen. >> none of this sounds speedy. tom, how long could it take for the max 9 to be back in the air? and what impact will it have in the meantime on travelers? >> reporter: i would say it became abundantly clear this weekend there is no timeline the faa will not be rushed the faa says it will review the first door plug inspections before it decides whether to go ahead and look at the rest of the 171 planes and then do a more detailed inspection so that means united and alaska will continue canceling potentially hundreds of flights each day they're trying to use different planes when they can, not to inconvenience customers, but they will have to trim their schedules in some cases. as we're in that spot, boeing put out a statement saying they are going to immediately bolster their quality assurance and quality control in their own factories. >> wow, tom, thank you very much >>> we move now to