WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) - Boeing ( BA ) CEO Dave Calhoun

will face tough questions from U.S. senators on Tuesday over the

planemaker's safety culture as well claims from a new

whistleblower employee.

Calhoun will appear at 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) before the

Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the first time

he will face lawmakers' questions after a January mid-air

emergency involving an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 raised

widespread alarm.

"This is a culture that continues to prioritize profits,

push limits, and disregard its workers," the panel's chair,

Senator Richard Blumenthal, said of Boeing ( BA ). "A culture

that enables retaliation against those who do not submit to the

bottom line. A culture that desperately needs to be repaired."

Blumenthal said a new whistleblower has come forward after a

hearing with a previous whistleblower in April. Blumenthal said

on Tuesday that Sam Mohawk, a current Boeing ( BA ) quality assurance

investigator at its 737 factory in Renton, Washington, recently

told the panel he had witnessed systemic disregard for

documentation and accountability of nonconforming parts.

Boeing ( BA ) declined to comment on the new claims.

Calhoun will acknowledge shortcomings but seek to emphasize

the company's efforts to improve.

"Much has been said about Boeing's ( BA ) culture. We've heard

those concerns loud and clear. Our culture is far from perfect,

but we are taking action and making progress," Calhoun will say

in his written statement.

Blumenthal called the hearing a "moment of reckoning" for

Boeing ( BA ).

"Boeing ( BA ) needs to stop thinking about the next earnings call

and start thinking about the next generation," Blumenthal will

say on Tuesday.

Since the Jan. 5 mid-air blowout of a door plug on a 737 MAX

9 jet, scrutiny of the planemaker by regulators and airlines has

intensified. Boeing ( BA ) has shaken up management and Calhoun said in

March that he will step down by year-end.

The National Transportation Safety Board said four key bolts

were missing from the Alaska Airlines plane. The Justice

Department has opened a criminal investigation into the

incident.

Last week, Michael Whitaker, head of the Federal Aviation

Administration, said the agency had been "too hands off" in its

oversight of Boeing ( BA ) before the Jan. 5 accident. Another senator

has also launched a probe into Boeing ( BA ).

On May 30, Boeing ( BA ) delivered a quality improvement plan to

the FAA after Whitaker gave the company 90 days to develop a

comprehensive effort to address "systemic quality-control

issues." He has barred the company from expanding production of

the MAX.

Last week, Boeing ( BA ) told the U.S. Justice Department it did

not violate a deferred prosecution agreement after two fatal

crashes of 737 MAX airplanes, a source familiar with the matter

told Reuters. The DPA had shielded the company from a criminal

charge arising from crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346

people.