Frequent accidents, is century-old Boeing becoming &#34;fragile&#34;?
On Wednesday, Boeing released its first-quarter financial report, with revenue of $16.569 billion, an 8% year-on-year decrease, better than analysts' expectations; the scale of losses narrowed year-on-year, with a net loss of $355 million, compared to a net loss of $425 million in the same period last year.
After the financial report was released, Boeing's US stocks opened more than 4% higher.
However, recent Boeing accidents have been frequent, and the better-than-expected financial report seems unable to save its tarnished reputation. So far this year, Boeing's stock price has fallen by 30%, ranking at the bottom of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
From engine fires, emergency cabin doors being blown off, engineer accusations of manufacturing defects, to Al Jazeera exposing drug use among its employees, now as the planes fly, the wheels are falling off again... exacerbating market concerns about the quality of Boeing's products.
According to media reports, at noon on April 21st local time, a Boeing 737-800 aircraft of South Africa's FlySafair had a wheel detachment from the left main landing gear during takeoff in Johannesburg.
After the wheel separation, the crew stopped climbing at 22,000 feet altitude and entered a holding pattern to burn fuel.
About 190 minutes into the flight, ground personnel at the airport found a damaged landing gear wheel. The airport informed the crew, and the aircraft was guided back. Low-altitude flight over the airport allowed technicians to visually assess the landing gear, revealing a wheel detachment from the left main landing gear.
The plane landed back at 2:06 pm, reportedly with no passengers or crew injured, and the cause of the accident is under investigation.
Unfortunately, the landing upon return caused further damage to the remaining wheel components.
In recent months, Boeing aircraft have experienced frequent safety incidents. A similar landing gear wheel detachment incident occurred a month and a half ago. On March 7th, a Boeing 777-200 aircraft operated by United Airlines flying from San Francisco to Osaka, Japan, also had a wheel detachment from the left main landing gear after takeoff, leading to an emergency landing at Los Angeles Airport
Just a few days before the landing gear incident, a Boeing engineer reported a potential safety issue with the 787 Dreamliner, affecting over a thousand aircraft. This whistleblower's report has once again shaken market confidence in Boeing

DFEN

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