Boeing’s tragedy: The fall of an American icon
The recent Alaska Airlines incident is just the latest in a string of sometimes tragic mishaps by the aircraft manufacturer – where did it all go wrong? On 5 January, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 lost a fuselage cabin panel at 4,900 metres and was forced to conduct an emergency landing, fortunately without any major injuries to passengers and crew. Still under investigation, it seems that the panel in question (provided by a Boeing partner, Spirit AeroSystems) had not been properly bolted to the fuselage, a major manufacturing defect and quality-control oversight. Loose parts were soon ...