Crash, torn door, missing panel… Boeing’s endless setbacks

For six years, Boeing has had a series of incidents and accidents with sometimes dramatic consequences. Since the start of the year, the black series even seems to be accelerating.

This month of March is to be marked with a black stone for Boeing. On the 17th, the crew of a Boeing 737-800 flying from New York to Chicago reported a problem with the wind speed indicators. Two days earlier, during a routine inspection after the landing of an old Boeing 737-800 in Oregon, experts spotted the absence of an external metal panel. More serious, on March 11, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner of the Chilean company Latam which linked Sydney in Australia to Auckland in New Zealand, lost altitude above the Tasman Sea. People who were not restrained were propelled to the ceiling. Around fifty were injured. On March 7, a Boeing 777 bound for Japan had to make an emergency landing in Los Angeles after losing a tire on takeoff. The next day, a Boeing 737 Max saw its landing gear break shortly after landing on the tarmac at Houston (Texas) airport, causing it to end its journey in outside the track.

The bad patch started in January. The incident on the 5th of this month could have had dramatic consequences. Shortly after takeoff, a door plug (a metal panel placed in a location that can accommodate a door) of a Boeing 737 Max 9 detached from the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines plane. Several bolts supposed to secure this door were missing, according to the US Transportation Safety Agency (NTSB). For its part, the American Civil Aviation Agency (FAA) identified “non-compliance problems” in the production control of Boeing and its subcontractor Spirit Aerosystems. Result: the aircraft manufacturer had to reduce the production rate of its 737 Max aircraft. And several passengers have filed complaints against Boeing. On January 19, an Atlas Air 747 freighter made an emergency landing in Miami after an engine fire, shortly after takeoff.

These incidents brought back painful memories. Two Boeing 737 Max planes crashed in 2018 and 2019. The first accident, in October 2018, of a Lion Air plane off the coast of Indonesia, killed 189 people. The second, in March 2019, caused the death of 157 passengers and crew members of the Ethiopian Airlines plane. In both cases, the accidents were due to a problem with new software. After the Ethiopian Airlines accident, the American authorities suspended the “cursed plane” from flying. Boeing has spent billions of dollars making modifications to the aircraft. American authorities lifted the flight suspension in November 2020, followed by European authorities in early 2021. But in April 2021, Boeing stopped deliveries of 737 Max due to electrical problems. And in August 2023, it identified a defect on the rear bulkhead of its planes.