Boeing shareholders grill CEO on safety standards

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg faced shareholders and reporters for the first time since the crashes of two planes.

He said many times that the company does not admit to errors in the design and certification of the 737 Max.

"We've confirmed that it was designed per our standards, certified per our standards," he said. "So we haven't seen a technical slip or gap."

Reporters pressed him, including one who asked whether he would take responsibility for the crashes by resigning. He said he would not.

Shareholders asked whether Boeing remained a company where safety is first.

One asked why a second crash had to happen. "You don't need to have 300 plus people die every time to prove something is unreliable," the unnamed shareholder said.

Muilenberg fought off a shareholder attempt to strip him of the title of chief executive officer. He remains president and CEO of the company.

Shortly after he wound down the shareholder meeting, an event in a Chicago law office started up. Several families who had lost relatives in the Ethiopian Airlines Max crash on March 10 gathered to announced their lawsuit against Boeing.

Manant Vaidya of Canada told reporters he heard Muilenburg say the company had followed design and certification standards. “If everything was followed, how could the crash still occur? There is something wrong in the process. There is some flaw in the process for sure."

"I lost three generations of my family. My parents, my sister, my nieces,” Vaidya said.

Another resident of Canada, Paul Njorge, lost his wife and three small children.

“To lose your entire family in an instant is something that is impossible for human beings to come to terms with," he said. "And I feel blessed that I have the sanity to be here today.”