Not going Boeing's way
American aircraft manufacturer Boeing faces increasing scrutiny following a series of mechanical failures and subsequent grounding of its Boeing 737 Max 9 model after an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 MAX faced an emergency landing after one of its doors blew open minutes after take-off.
One might recall of Boeing’s 737 Max generation of aircraft been steeped in controversy since it first took to the skies commercially in 2017.After the two fatal Max 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019, all Max aircraft were grounded globally for almost two years while company engineers worked to identify and resolve the issue.
Soon after the Alaska Airlines blowout, a plane taxiing for departure clipped another aircraft at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. No injuries were reported, both planes were of Boeing design, and the FAA says it will investigate the incident.
The left wing tip of Flight 11 from All Nippon Airways, a Japanese airline, struck the rear of Delta Air Lines Flight 2122 on that Sunday around 6:30 p.m. Central Time. The All Nippon Airways flight was a Boeing 777, and the Delta Air Lines aircraft was a Boeing 717.
A Delta spokesperson by that an All Nippon Airways aircraft clipped a Delta plane while it was parking at a gate after arriving at O'Hare from Detroit. Passengers though were able to deplane normally at the gate.
In a separate incident A T'Way Air flight 216, a Boeing 737-800 with 122 passengers on board, faced a harrowing situation when a bird struck its starboard engine, leading to an emergency landing. The incident occurred as the plane was about to land at Incheon airport in South Korea around 9:30 pm.
According to TBS News Dig, a local outlet, a bird collided with the starboard engine during the approach, causing the engine to catch fire. Alarming scenes unfolded as flames erupted from the engine, nearly reaching the plane's tail. The pilot decided to abort the initial landing, opting for an emergency landing to ensure the safety of the passengers and crew. Despite disruption, all passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
Elsewhere, an All Nippon Airways' domestic flight 1182 faced safety concerns mid-air. The Boeing 737-800 aircraft, en route to Toyama airport, returned to Sapporo-New Chitose airport after a crack was discovered on the cockpit window. The flight, operating in Japanese airspace, detected a crack on the outermost layer of the cockpit window, prompting the decision to return to the departure airport. There were no reported injuries among the 59 passengers and six crew members.
Things have gotten unreal for Boeing after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was delayed on his return from Davos last week due to a critical malfunction with his aircraft..After flying from Davos to Zurich on helicopters and boarding the modified Boeing 737, Blinken and his party were informed that the aircraft had been deemed unsafe to fly. An oxygen leak detected previously could not be remedied.
Whilst two of the above-mentioned incidents could be attributed to human error and one to an unavoidable collusion with a bird, it didn’t help Boeing’s nightmarish month.
To add to Boeing’s woes, Airbus has pulled far ahead of Boeing, after delivering and taking more orders for planes over its main rival in 2023.
Source: External
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